MHRAR Y 

OK  THK 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


OIKT  01-* 


Deceived 
Accessions  Noi  CLiss  No. 


MRS.    LIMBER'S    RAFFLE 

OR,   A   CHURCH   FAIR   AND 
ITS  VICTIMS 

\ 

A    SHORT    STORY 
BY 

WILLIAM  ALLEN   BUTLER 


NEW   EDITION 


NEW   YORK 

D.    APPLETON   AND   COMPANY 
1894 


COPYRIGHT, /875,  1894, 
BT  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


PEEFAOE. 


THE  narrative  of  Mrs.  Limber's  experience 
in  the  management  of  a  church-fair  raffle,  as 
contained  in  the  following  pages,  was  published 
in  1876,  anonymously,  in  order  that  the  moral 
which  it  sought  to  enforce  might  stand  on  its 
own  merits,  free  from  any  element,  either  of 
strength  or  weakness,  attaching  to  personal  ad 
vocacy.  The  book  was  widely  circulated,  and  its 
condemnation  of  raffling  was  not  met  by  any  ad 
verse  criticism  or  answered  by  any  opposing  ar 
gument.  A  new  edition  of  the  story  being  called 
for,  its  authorship  is  avowed ;  and  attention  may 
fitly  be  called  to  the  great  advance  in  sound  pub 
lic  opinion  on  the  subject  of  lotteries,  during 
the  eighteen  years  which  -have  elapsed  since  its 
first  publication.  The  scandalous  attempt  in 
Louisiana  in  1890  to  perpetuate,  on  an  enor 
mous  scale,  a  lottery  system  for  the  benefit  of 


IV  PREFACE. 

the  State,  with  the  intent  of  drawing  its  re 
sources  from  the  entire  country,  aroused  a  storm 
of  indignation  which  swept  away  its  local  sup 
ports,  and  fastened  a  brand  of  outlawry  on  an 
evil  which  is  now  denounced  and  prohibited  by 
the  Constitution  of  almost  every  State  in  the 
Union. 

Raffling,  which  is  included  in  the  prohibi 
tion,  still  survives  and  flourishes,  for  the  reason 
that  the  public  conscience,  while  awakened  to 
the  evils  of  gambling  on  a  large  scale  and  in  its 
grosser  forms,  winks  at  the  same  evil  in  its  lesser 
proportions,  partly  as  a  peccadillo  and  partly  from 
its  serviceableness  as  an  ally  of  benevolence — a 
bad  means  sanctified  by  a  good  end.  The  sym 
pathies  of  charitable  women,  especially,  repel  the 
idea  of  wrong  or  immorality  as  inhering  in  any 
thing  which  stimulates  the  impulse  of  benevo 
lence  by  the  added  zest  of  chance ;  and  accord 
ingly  they  set  aside  the  mandate  of  the  law  and 
the  moral  principle  on  which  it  rests,  with  a 
charming  indifference  to  both,  characteristic  of 
their  sex,  which  shrinks  instinctively  from  im 
purity  and  evil,  but  smilingly  chaperones  a  seem 
ingly  innocent  vice  which  not  only  leans  to  vir 
tue's  side,  but  is  obtrusively  active  in  her  service. 
Truth,  thus  wounded  in  the  house  of  her  friends, 


PREFACE.  V 

finds  few  defenders  in  the  ranks  of  those  whose 
special  duty  should  be  the  education  of  the  con 
science  and  the  conservation  of  morals.  This  re 
sult  is  largely  due  to  the  inherent  difficulty  of 
asserting  a  moral  principle  which  depends  for  its 
true  acceptance  upon  a  process  of  reasoning,  and 
also  to  the  ungraciousness  of  discouraging  the 
efforts  of  well-meaning  and  benevolent  people. 
Meanwhile  the  demoralization  goes  on ;  boys  and 
girls  make  their  first  essay  in  gambling  by  draw 
ing  some  petty  prize  in  the  chances  of  a  raffle ; 
and  the  general  assent  of  the  community  is  easily 
enlisted,  on  the  plea  of  philanthropy  or  Christian 
charity,  in  aid  of  deliberate  violations  of  a  posi 
tive  law  and  an  established  moral  principle. 

WILLIAM  ALLEJ^  BUTLER. 

ROUND  OAK,  YONKEES,  N.  Y.,  May,  1894. 


CONTENTS. 


PAUK 

CHAP.  I. — ST.  PARVUS  BY  MOONLIGHT  ...        6 

IL— CENTURIA            ....  21 

TIL — PAT  LOONEY'S  LUCK             .            .  .84 

IV. — A  RUBRICAL  RECTOR      .            .            .  41 

V. — MR.  CALENDAR'S  CODE          .            ,  .63 

VI.— THE  FAIR           ....  ?S 

VII. — THE  DAY  AFTER  THE  FAIR   .            .  .92 

VIII. — PUBLIC  OPINION  IN  SPINDLE  107 

IX. — FIAT  JUSTITIA           .            .            .  .118 

X. — APOTHEOSIS  OF  CENTURIA           .            .  14G 


MES,  LIMBEE'S  EAITLE. 

CHAPTER  I. 

ST.    PAEYUS  BY  MOONLIGHT. 

MBS.  DAYID  LIMBEB  was  a  housekeeper  with 
out  fear  and  without  reproach.  There  was  but 
one  key  to  her  storeroom,  and  she  held  it  with  a 
firm  hand.  She  was  an  active  manager,  with 
a  keen  eye  for  dirt,  a  quick  ear  for  all  un 
licensed  sounds,  and  a  sense  of  smell  almost  su 
pernatural.  Her  good  bargains  were  prover 
bial,  and  she  was  a  standard  authority  on  butter. 
No  one  could  excel  her  in  that  gift  of  domes 
tic  divination,  by  which  experienced  housewives 
can  announce,  at  the  first  sound  of  the  street- 
door  bell,  who  is  ringing  it,  and  can  detect  the 
existence  of  "something  burning,"  or  of  un 
fastened  windows,  or  suspicious  footfalls  in  distant 
corners  of  the  house,  at  the  dead  of  night,  in 


spite  of  all  adverse  presumptions,  or  of  the  crimi 
nal  indifference  or  apathy  of  husbands. 

Among  other  high  prerogatives  of  Mrs.  Lim 
ber,  was  that  of  being,  as  she  was  in  the  habit  of 
expressing  it,  "  the  last  one  up  in  the  house," 
by  which  it  is  to  be  understood,  not  that  she 
rose  in  the  morning  after  every  one  else,  but  that 
she  did  not  retire  at  night  until  the  whole  family 
was  actually  or  constructively  in  bed. 

In  the  enjoyment  of  this  privilege,  Mrs.  Lim 
ber  was  seated,  one  Saturday  evening,  in  her 
little  up-stairs  sitting-room,  in  the  absence  of  her 
husband,  the  only  person  in  her  spacious  mansion 
who  had  not  ended  the  week's  work  or  play  and 
gone  to  bed.  A  hickory-fire,  which  the  first  Oc 
tober  frost  had  made  a  cheerful  novelty  on  her 
hearth,  gave  out  a  glow  in  harmony  with  her 
own  genial  presence.  A  large  basket,  piled  with 
stockings,  was  placed  conveniently  by  her  side, 
and,  as  she  plied  her  needle  with  the  quick  cer 
tainty  of  an  expert  in  the  art  and  mystery  of 
darning,  two  unsolved  enigmas  occupied  her 
thoughts — the  first,  where  all  the  holes  in  the 
stockings  came  from;  and  the  second,  why  no 
one  could  mend  them  but  herself. 

It  was  evident,  however,  that  these  questions 
were  suggested  by  no  bitterness  of  spirit,  and 


ST.    PARVUS    BY   MOONLIGHT.  7 

that  they  would,  if  answered,  have  probably  re 
sulted  in  a  quiet  sense  of  satisfaction,  on  Mrs. 
Limber's  part,  that  her  husband  and  children 
were  pushing  their  way  in  the  world,  and  she 
was  helping  them  do  it,  for  her  face  wore  a  smile, 
and  her  heart  was  in  her  work  as  really,  if  not  as 
literally,  as  her  hand.  Seen  at  this  moment  by 
even  the  most  unskilled  physiognomist,  Mrs. 
Limber  would  have  appeared  the  embodiment  of 
good  sense  and  good  temper,  a  fair-faced,  free 
hearted  matron,  blessed  with  a  contented  hus 
band  and  healthy  children,  and  with  a  will  and 
a  way  of  her  own.  This  is  precisely  what  she 
was. 

The  hall-clock  struck  eleven.  The  clock  in 
Mrs.  Limber's  bedroom  did  the  same,  and  so  did 
the  clock  on  her  sitting-room  mantel-piece.  What 
Charles  V.  found  it  impossible  to  do,  Mrs.  Lim 
ber  had  accomplished ;  her  clocks  struck  to 
gether.  At  the  last  stroke  she  paused  in  her 
work,  folded  away  the  nineteenth  stocking,  one 
only  out  of  ten  pair  having  been  wonderfully  pre 
served  from  new  rents,  thanks  to  the  strength  of 
former  darns,  and  laid  it  on  the  top  of  the  pile, 
to  which  she  gave  a  motherly  pat  with  her  broad, 
white  palm.  The  final  destination  of  this  pre 
cious  basket  was  the  top  of  the  bureau  in  her 


8 


own  bedroom,  but  just  now  she  let  it  rest  on  the 
work-table  at  which  she  had  been  seated,  while 
she  opened  the  window,  with  the  single  intent  of 
closing  the  outside  blinds,  according  to  her  inva 
riable  habit,  and  as  an  indispensable  preliminary 
to  a  quiet  night's  rest. 

But  this  movement,  so  commonplace  and  me 
chanical,  was  changed  into  a  gesture  of  surprise 
and  delight  as  the  opened  window  disclosed  a 
scene  in  which  the  most  familiar  and  ordinary 
objects  were  clothed  with  a  beauty  as  rare  as  it 
was  unexpected.  The  night  was  clear,  and  the 
moon,  at  its  full,  was  at  that  instant  transform 
ing,  by  its  magic  touch,  the  prosaic  manufacturing 
village  of  Spindle,  upon  which  David  Limber's 
front-windows  looked  down,  and  in  which  his 
own  factories  were  the  most  prominent  objects, 
into  one  of  the  selectest  nooks  of  fairy-land.  The 
tall  chimneys,  the  shingle  roofs,  the  tinned  cupo 
la  of  the  court-house,  the  church-spires,  the  black 
mass  of  railroad-buildings  at  the  junction-depot — 
all  took  on  a  new  aspect,  and  the  surrounding 
hills  and  woods  seemed  for  once  in  harmony  with 
the  quiet  town,  which  was,  in  reality  and  by  day 
light,  one  of  the  noisiest  and  most  obtrusive  coun 
ty  seats  and  railway  centres  which  the  genius 
of  modern  improvement  ever  thrust  into  any 


ST.    PAEVF8    BY    MOONLIGHT.  9 

one  of  the  many  happy  valleys  of  the  Empire 
State. 

Mrs.  Limber's  eye  rested  on  the  whole  moon 
lit  scene.  Although  much  more  given  to  the 
practical  than  the  ideal,  she  did  not,  at  that 
witching  hour,  stop  to  think  how  much  of  it 
was  owned  in  fee  by  her  husband,  and  subject, 
by  virtue  of  her  tender  relation  to  him,  to 
her  own  inchoate  right  of  dower.  Her  unselfish 
gaze  turned  from  the  clustered  factory-roofs  and 
lingered  on  the  sleeping  village,  resting  with  spe 
cial  satisfaction  on  the  cross-tipped  spire  of  the 
little  church  of  St.  Parvus.  Wooden  though  it 
was,  and  somewhat  out  of  the  line  of  a  true  per 
pendicular,  it  seemed  to  her  a  model  of  grace  and 
proportion.  The  Grecian  pediment  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church,  it  is  true,  was  pure  Pa 
rian  in  the  moonlight ;  the  square,  brick  tower 
of  the  Baptists,  bathed  in  the  silver  sheen,  waa 
redeemed  from  its  native  ugliness ;  even  the 
Methodist  Meeting-House,  touched  by  the  lunar 
beam,  wore  a  tint  better  than  that  for  which  it 
had  long  been  awaiting  the  painter's  brush  ; 
while  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  planted  at  a 
respectful  distance,  but  on  a  commanding  emi 
nence,  seemed  to  catch  and  reflect,  on  its  large 
gilt  cross,  more  than  its  share  of  the  impartial 


tO  MRS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

moonlight.  But  St.  Parvus  pierced  the  serene 
sky  with  the  tallest  steeple,  and  soared  heaven 
ward  with  a  sense  of  conscious  supremacy.  So, 
at  least,  it  seemed  to  Mrs.  Limber. 

And  yet,  as  she  gave  one  last,  loving  glance, 
and  gently  drew  the  blinds  together,  secured  the 
fastenings,  turned  the  bolt  of  the  sash,  and  then, 
after  her  immemorial  habit,  made  a  spasmodic 
effort  to  reopen  the  window,  by  way  of  making 
assurance  doubly  sure,  Mrs.  Limber  heaved  a 
sigh.  This  first  sigh,  like  her  last  glance,  was 
given  to  St.  Parvus,  and  was  inspired  by  the 
thought  that,  however  bright  its  aspect  by  moon 
light,  its  e very-day  condition  was  one  of  chronic 
and  desperate  poverty,  so  desperate  that  Mr.  Lim 
ber  and  his  fellow-vestrymen  were  kept  out  of 
their  houses  and  their  beds  on  this  very  Saturday 
night  to  sit  up  with  an  incurable  and  exasperat 
ing  church  debt,  and  to  devise  ways  and  means  to 
be  rid  of  it.  No  wonder  it  seemed  to  Mrs. 
Limber  as  disagreeable  and  troublesome  as  the 
strangled  Hunchback  in  the  "Arabian  Nights," 
a  dead  weight,  not  to  be  concealed  or  disposed 
of,  with  the  fatal  disadvantage  of  entire  inability 
to  lay  it  at  the  door  of  any  other  church. 

The  utter  indifference  of  the  general  popula 
tion  of  Spindle,  manufacturers,  operatives  and  all, 


ST.    PAKVUS   BY   MOONLIGHT.  11 

to  this  pitiable  condition  of  St.  Parvus,  was  some 
thing  which  Mrs.  Limber,  to  use  her  own  language, 
"never  did  and  never  could  comprehend."  It 
confirmed  her  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  total  de 
pravity  that  the  superior  privileges  which  were 
enjoyed  at  this  exclusive  shrine,  on  as  favorable 
terms  as  those  held  out  by  any  First  or  Second 
Presbyterian,  any  Wesleyan  Methodist,  any  Free 
will  Baptist,  or  any  Reformed  Dutch  Church, 
should  attract  so  few  adherents,  while  those  rival 
societies  were  as  strong  in  numbers  and  as  easy 
in  their  finances  as  they  were,  according  to  Mrs. 
Limber's  ideas,  unsound  in  doctrine. 

Equally  incomprehensible,  and  not  to  be  ac 
counted  for  by  any  hypothesis,  doctrinal  or  other 
wise,  was  the  way  in  which  the  worthy  Rector  of 
St.  Parvus,  the  Rev.  Alban  Chancel,  ignored  and 
dismissed  from  consideration,  as  he  might  have 
done  some  pestilent  heresy  or  petty  scandal,  the 
depleted  state  of  the  finances  of  his  church,  pur 
suing  his  weekly  and  daily  round  of  ministerial 
duty  with  as  much  precision  and  with  as  comfort 
able  a  sense  of  parochial  independence  as  if  the 
revenues  of  Old  Trinity  had  been  at  his  sole  dis 
posal. 

"  Mr.  Chancel  hardly  seems  to  know  that  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  a  church  debt,"  Mrs.  Limbei 


had  said  to  the  rector's  wife,  her  bosom  friend, 
as  they  diverged,  in  conversation  one  day,  from 
the  absorbing  topics  of  dress  and  domestics  to 
the  distresses  of  St.  Parvus. 

Mrs.  Chancel  was  an  invalid,  but  somewhat 
skilled  in  repartee. 

"  Do  you  think,  my  dear,  that  if  Mr.  Chancel 
were  to  borrow  trouble  the  parish  debt  could  be 
paid  any  sooner  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  matter-of-fact  Mrs.  Limber ;  "  but 
he  does  not  seem  to  take  it  much  to  heart.  Now, 
I  always  worry  over  a  debt  until  it  is  paid." 

"  Oh,  if  this  were  Mr.  Chancel's  debt,  I  dare 
say  he  would  worry  over  it,  but,  instead  of  his 
taking  it  to  his  heart,  perhaps  it  would  be  as 
well  for  the  pew-holders  to  take  it  to  their  pock 
ets." 

"  Of  course,  the  parish  owes  the  debt,"  said 
Mrs.  Limber,  and  the  discourse  of  the  ladies 
gravitated  again  toward  the  last  item  of  domestic 
experience. 

But,  if  the  good  rector  and  his  wife  bore  the 
burden  of  the  debt  too  lightly,  it  weighed  heavi 
ly  enough  on  the  soul  of  Mrs.  Limber,  the  most 
faithful  of  his  faithful  nock.  She  was  the  cham 
pion,  though  after  a  strictly  feminine,  unhistoric, 
and  illogical  fashion  of  her  own,  of  the  highest 


ST.   PAKVUS   BY   MOONLIGHT.  13 

ecclesiasticism,  and  delighted  in  her  reputation 
as  an  uncompromising  churchwoman,  who  stood 
for  Episcopacy  in  general,  and  St.  Parvus  in  par 
ticular,  against  all  comers  and  all  goers,  as  she 
would  have  stood  for  her  husband  and  children, 
determined  to  do  her  whole  duty  even  should  sho 
be  left,  like  Dean  Swift's  dearly-beloved  Roger, 
the  sole  auditor  of  the  rector's  exhortations. 

Of  all  the  many  contributions  made  to  St. 
Parvus  by  this  estimable  parishioner,  the  most 
valuable  was  David  Limber  himself,  whom  she 
had  brought  over,  bodily — and  he  was  a  good 
two  hundred  pounds  weight — from  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  and  Dr.  Flatfoot.  There 
had  been  a  former  Mrs.  Limber  who  was  Presby 
terian.  She  died,  in  the  fifth  year  of  her  married 
life,  leaving  a  boy,  three  years  old,  and  an  infant 
daughter.  Her  husband,  seven  years  later,  had 
married  again,  with  the  full  consent  and  approba 
tion  of  every  man,  woman,  and  child,  in  Spindle, 
capable  of  forming  and  expressing  an  opinion  on 
the  subject.  This  unanimity  of  sentiment  was 
partly  owing  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Limber's  popu 
larity  was  so  great  that,  whatever  he  had  chosen 
to  do,  short  of  marrying  his  grandmother,  would 
have  been  presumptively  right,  but  it  was  due 
even  more  to  the  real  wisdom  of  his  choice. 
2 


Everybody  knew  Martha  Fleming,  the  only  child 
of  the  old  village  doctor  whose  horse  and  chaise 
had  stopped,  at  one  time  or  another,  at  almost 
every  door  in  the  county  before  Spindle  numbered 
a  tithe  of  its  present  population,  and  whose  pro 
fessional  repute,  in  spite  of  the  inroads  of  young 
er  practitioners,  had  continued  to  the  day  of  his 
death.  His  daughter  had  kept  his  house  for 
many  years,  tenderly  caring  for  him  in  his  declin 
ing  days,  and  it  was  not  until  after  his  death 
that  she  would  admit  the  idea  of  being  more  to 
any  one  else  than  she  had  been  to  him ;  but 
when  at  twenty-six  she  married  David  Limber, 
the  leading  manufacturer  of  the  place,  only  fifteen 
years  her  senior,  and  by  right  entitled  to  as  gocd 
a  wife  as  Spindle,  or  the  world  at  large,  could 
afford,  it  was  universally  admitted,  at  all  tea-tables 
and  elsewhere,  that  she  had  done  well  and  wise 
ly.  Not  long  after  his  second  marriage,  Mr.  Lim 
ber,  who  during  a  sober  courtship  had  been  a 
constant  attendant  at  St.  Parvus,  was  seated 
punctually  at  the  head  of  the  pew  which  his  de 
parted  father-in-law  had  occupied  whenever  his 
Sunday  rounds  permitted.  With  a  little  aid 
from  his  wife,  the  new  recruit,  who  had  privately 
expressed  his  fears  that  he  was  "  rather  stiff  in 
the  joints  "  for  the  services  of  St.  Parvus,  was  in 


ST.    PAEYUS   BY   MOONLIGHT.  15 

due  time  fully  initiated  as  a  churchman.  He 
took  kindly  to  the  change,  but  showed  symptoms 
of  recusance  when,  at  the  end  of  a  year,  he 
found  himself,  on  Easter  Tuesday,  suddenly  meta 
morphosed  into  a  warden. 

"  There  is  no  warrant  for  it  in  Scripture,"  said 
he  to  the  rector's  wife,  whom  Mrs.  Limber  had 
called  to  her  aid  in  overcoming  his  scruples. 
"  There's  a  town  clerk  mentioned  in  the  Acts, 
and  a  chamberlain,  but  never  a  warden  or  a  ves 
tryman." 

"  And  where,"  said  Mrs.  Chancel,  "  is  mention 
made  of  a  trustee  or  a  synod  ?  " 

This  retort  did  not  make  his  personal  duty 
any  clearer  to  Mr.  Limber,  but  he  yielded,  at  last, 
and  soon  ascertained  that,  whether  warranted  by 
Scripture  or  not,  there  was  no  uncertainty  about 
the  pecuniary  obligations  which  his  new  functions 
imposed,  and  that  there  was,  in  this  respect,  a 
striking  coincidence  between  the  privileges  of  an 
Episcopal  warden  and  a  Presbyterian  trustee. 

All  these  changes  had  happened  a  dozen 
years  ago,  as  the  stockings  in  Mrs.  Limber's  bas 
ket  could  attest,  representing  as  they  did — besides 
Sam,  the  eldest  boy,  now  a  college  graduate  and 
student  in  a  metropolitan  law-school,  and  his  sis 
ter  Bessie,  the  children  of  the  first  marriage — 


16 


three  little  Limbers  of  a  later  growth,  of  whom 
the  eldest  was  ten  and  the  youngest  four,  all 
boys. 

The  well-disciplined  clocks  were  about  to 
stiike,  in  concert,  half-past  eleven,  when  Mr.  Lim 
ber's  step  was  heard  at  his  front-door,  and  he 
was  soon  seated,  with  slippered  feet,  before  the 
bed  of  coals  which  his  wife  had  carefully  gathered 
into  a  glowing  heap. 

"  I  am  out  of  all  patience,  Martha,"  said  the 
tired  warden,  "  with  these  vestry -meetings.  It 
is  always  the  same  old  story,  more  debt  and  less 
money." 

"  How  much  is  wanted  to  clear  off  the  debt  ?  " 
asked  Mrs.  Limber,  throwing  a  shovelful  of  ashes 
over  the  coals. 

a  Three  thousand  dollars  to  cover  everything, 
including  the  assessment  for  opening  Shuttle 
Street,  and  the  rector's  salary  to  November  1st," 
replied  Mr.  Limber,  with  as  much  precision  as 
if  he  were  reading  the  disagreeable  figures  to  the 
assembled  congregation. 

Mrs.  Limber  deposited  another  installment  of 
ashes  on  the  apex  of  the  coal-heap,  and  flattened 
it  with  the  back  of  the  shovel.  This  was  done 
with  emphasis.  She  was  about  to  surprise  Mr. 
Limber  with  a  statement. 


ST.    PARVUS   BY   MOONLIGHT.  17 

"  You  may  count  upon  Mrs.  Chancel  and  me 
for  a  thousand,  perhaps  fifteen  hundred  dol 
lars." 

"  Where  from  ?  "  inquired  Mr.  Limber.  His 
monosyllables  had  a  very  skeptical  tone. 

"  From  a  church  fair,"  replied  Mrs.  Limber, 
tossing  the  remnant  of  the  ashes  on  the  extin 
guished  embers,  and  speaking  with  as  much  as 
surance  as  if  she  had  announced  an  entirely 
original  and  unprecedented,  as  well  as  infallible, 
remedy  for  all  cases  of  ecclesiastical  poverty. 

Her  husband  shook  his  head.  "  A  church 
fair,  Martha,  is  a  kind  of  pious  fraud,  which  can 
be  winked  at  when  its  object  is  to  help  along  a 
mission-school,  or  a  poor-hospital,  or  some  strug 
gling  congregation  in  a  wild  parish,  but  for  a 
congregation  like  our  own,  and  in  a  community 
such  as  this,  it  would  be  too  undignified.  I  had 
rather  put  my  hand  in  my  pocket  and  pay  the 
whole  debt  myself." 

And,  so  far  as  putting  his  hand  in  his  pocket 
went,  Mr.  Limber  suited  the  action  to  the  word. 

"  Nonsense,  husband  !  "  said  Mrs.  Limber  ; 
"  you  shall  do  no  such  thing.  It  would  be  very 
foolish  and  very  wrong.  The  people  would  de 
pend  upon  you  instead  of  depending  on  them 
selves,  and,  as  for  dignity,  poor  and  proud  may 


18 


do  for  private  people,  but  it  will  not  do  for 
churches." 

"  Any  thing  but  a  church  fair,"  said  Mr.  Lim 
ber,  still  unconvinced. 

"  Except  a  church  debt,"  rejoined  his  wife. 

"  Church  debts  are  bad  enough,  I  admit,  but 
they  are  honest  debts — certainly  ours  is — while 
a  church  fair,  or  any  fair,  in  fact,  always  seems 
to  me  like  a  contrivance  to  get  a  great  deal  of 
money  for  very  little  value,  by  putting  off  un 
marketable  goods  on  unwilling  purchasers  at  ex 
orbitant  prices,  on  the  pretense  of  doing  good. 
False  pretenses,  I  say." 

"  It  is  lucky  for  you,  husband,"  said  Mrs.  Lim 
ber,  good-naturedly,  "  that  Mary  Chancel  isn't 
here  to  hear  you  charging  her  and  me  with  false 
pretenses.  Our  fair  is  to  be  conducted  on  the 
strictest  business  principles.  We  shall  have  over 
six  weeks  for  preparation,  and  it  will  be  just  be 
fore  Christmas,  so  that  everybody  can  buy  pres 
ents  of  us ;  we  shall  have  the  best  of  goods,  at 
fair  prices —  " 

"  Which  are  always  unfair"  interposed  Mr. 
Limber — 

"  I  mean  moderate  prices  and  you  knew  that 
well  enough,  so  you  need  not  trip  me  up ;  but 
seriously,  David,  it  will  be  an  advantage  to  the 


ST.    PARVUS   BY   MOONLIGHT.  19 

whole  place.  We  shall  get  money,  besides,  from 
every  one  who  has  it  to  spend.  The  Presbyte 
rians  are  the  richest  people  in  Spindle,  and  why 
should  they  have  Christmas  without  paying  toll 
.  for  it  to  the  church  ?  " 

"  It  does  seem  to  me,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  "  that 
Christmas  is  the  last  thing  in  the  world  to  grudge 
to  any  one,  even  to  Presbyterians,  if  they  have 
the  grace  to  keep  it." 

"  Then  let  them  keep  it  like  Christians,"  said 
Mrs.  Limber,  "  instead  of  locking  up  their  church 
es  and  lighting  up  Christmas-trees  which  Mrs. 
Chancel  says  are  relics  of  heathenism,  handed 
down  from  the  Roman  saturnalia,  when  they  light 
ed  wax-tapers  in  honor  of  the  sun  at  this  very 
season,  and  she  says  that,  for  all  the  religion  there 
is  in  a  Christmas-tree,  you  might  as  well  give  the 
children  the  Odes  of  Horace  translated  into  words 
of  one  syllable." 

"  I  don't  know  anything  about  the  Odes  of 
Horace,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  "  nor  about  Saturn, 
except  that  T  believe  he  devoured  his  children, 
and  it  strikes  me  that  Mr.  Chancel  might  as  well 
try  to  gobble  up  all  the  Presbyterian  boys  and 
girls  as  to  undertake  to  cut  down  their  Christmas- 
trees.  But  I  am  half  asleep,  and  the  clock  is  just 
going  to  strike  twelve." 


IVBR3IT7 


20 


"  I  am  wide  awake,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  "  but 
we  must  try  to  get  down  to  breakfast  earlier  on 
Sunday  morning,  and  going  to  bed  after  midnight 
is  hardly  the  way  to  do  it." 

She  took  up  her  basket  and  looked  lovingly 
at  the  pile  of  stockings,  as  she  followed  her  hus 
band. 

"  After  all,"  she  said,  "  my  evening's  work 
was  harder  than  yours : 

'  A  man  may  work  from  sun  to  sun, 
But  a  woman's  work  is  never  done.' 

Twenty  stockings  and  only  one  without  a  hole. 
Dear  me  1  what  shall  we  do  with  these  children's 

toes  ?  " 


CHAPTER  II. 

CENTUKIA. 

IT  was  one  of  the  sayings  of  Spindle  that  the 
Limbers  never  did  anything-  by  halves.  David 
Limber  was  a  practical  manufacturer,  with  a 
genius  for  invention  which  helped  him  to  reduce 
the  cost  and  enhance  the  quality  of  his  fabrics, 
and  fitted  him  for  a  competition  with  rival  mill- 
owners  by  which  he  became  used  to  transactions 
on  a  large  scale,  and  to  very  liberal  ways.  Mrs. 
Limber,  with  a  constitutional  distrust  of  all  retail 
weights  and  measures,  preferred  unbroken  pack 
ages  and  uncut  pieces.  There  was  thus  an  air  of 
profusion  about  their  way  of  doing  things  which 
inspired  respect.  David  Limber  was  justly  reck 
oned  by  his  fellow-townsmen  a  whole-souled  man, 
and  Mrs.  Limber  was  rated  as  a  whole-souled 
woman — enviable  titles,  inasmuch  as  men  and 
women  with  whole  souls  were  as  rare  in  Spindle 
as  they  usually  are  in  other  manufacturing  or  un- 
manufacturing  communities. 


22  MRS.  LIMBER'S  BAFFLE. 

It  was  no  wonder,  then,  that  when  Mrs.  Lim 
ber  came  in  her  own  proper  person  to  the  rescue 
of  St.  Parvus,  and  was  officially  announced  in  the 
Spindle  Freebooter  as  the  promoter  and  chief  pa 
troness  of  a  fair,  to  be  held  in  her  own  spacious 
parlors,  and  which  was  to  be  the  most  attractive 
entertainment  of  the  approaching  holiday  season 
as  well  as  the  most  effectual  means  of  relief  for  a 
deserving  object,  it  seemed  to  everybody  the  most 
natural  thing  in  the  world,  and  the  most  certain 
of  success.  The  beaux'and  belles  of  Spindle  were 
on  the  alert  for  a  new  social  sensation,  and  the 
most  satisfactory  results  of  the  enterprise  were 
assured  in  advance,  just  as  an  expected  financial 
movement  is  discounted  by  the  bulls  and  bears 
of  Wall  Street.  Volunteers  nocked  to  Mrs.  Lim 
ber's  standard,  and  her  arrangements  were  soon 
completed. 

"  We  are  making  splendid  progress,"  said  Mrs. 
Limber  to  her  husband,  as  she  filled  his  coffee-cup 
at  the  breakfast-table,  one  Monday  morning  early 
in  December ;  "  Sam  is  our  treasurer,  and  Bessie 
our  in-door  manager.  The  stores  sell  us  goods  at 
wholesale  prices,  and  give  liberal  donations  be 
sides.  We  have  a  special  agent  who  is  making 
purchases  in  New  York  and  Albany,  and  securing 
consignments  of  Christmas  goods  for  sale  on  com- 


CENTUKIA.  23 

mission.  We  are  to  have  a  post-office,  a  Sibyl  to 
tell  fortunes,  a  lovely  blonde  for  an  Undine,  and 
half  a  dozen  brunettes  for  a  gypsy  camp,  a  foun 
tain  of  lemonade  with  several  Rebeccas,  a  Punch 
and  Judy,  a  conjurer,  a  picture-gallery,  a  pavilion 
for  refreshments,  a  score  of  flower-girls,  and  last 
but  not  least  a  hundred-dollar  doll,  Mrs.  Chancel's 
special  contribution,  direct  from  Paris,  with  a 
wardrobe  complete." 

Mr.  Limber  had  not  paid  much  attention  to 
his  wife's  list  of  attractions,  but  he  pricked  up 
his  ears  at  the  mention  of  the  last  item  in  the 
catalogue. 

"  Who  wants  a  hundred-dollar  doll  ?  "  he  in 
quired. 

"  Any  one  who  can  get  it.  The  doll  is  really 
a  work  of  art.  She  is  to  be  raffled  for  at  a  dollar 
a  chance,  one  hundred  chances." 

"  Bessie,"  said  Sam,  pausing  over  his  tenth 
buckwheat  cake,  "  I  will  give  you  a  name  for  that 
doll." 

"  What's  in  a  name  ?  "  said  Miss  Bessie,  who 
was  just  at  the  age  of  the  most  familiar  quota 
tions. 

"There  is  one  hundred  dollars  in  the  name  I 
am  about  to  propose.  If  she  is  to  command  a  hun 
dred,  she  is  a  female  centurion,  and  taking  a  slight 


24:  MRS.    LIMBECS    RAFFLE. 

liberty  with  terminations,  I  christen  her  *  Centu- 
ria,'  which  you  see  has  this  great  advantage,  be 
sides  its  evident  appropriateness,  that,  when  her 
expensive  wardrobe  is  to  be  marked,  the  initial 
C.  will  stand  at  once  for  her  name  and  her  price." 

"  What  a  very  smart  boy  our  brother  Sam  is  !  " 
exclaimed  Bessie ;  "  I  wonder  if  we  couldn't  ex 
hibit  him  as  a  separate  department  of  the  fair, 
and  raffle  him  off  at  the  end  ?  " 

"  Not  at  a  dollar  a  chance,"  said  Sam,  return 
ing  to  his  buckwheats. 

"  Mother,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  laying  down  his 
knife  and  fork,  with  great  deliberation,  and  look 
ing  seriously  at  his  wife,  "  do  you  really  mean  to 
have  raffling  at  this  fair  ?  " 

"  Certainly,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  in  her  cheer 
ful,  positive  tone. 

"  I  am  very  sorry,"  said  her  husband.  "  I 
think  you  ought  not  to  allow  it." 

"  I  do  not  agree  with  you,  husband.  I  cannot 
see  any  harm  in  a  raffle  at  such  a  fair  as  this  is  to 
be ;  they  have  them  at  all  the  church  fairs,  and 
they  contribute  to  the  enjoyment,  and  bring  in 
money  which  we  need  so  much." 

She  said  this  so  sweetly,  and  out  of  the  abun 
dance  of  a  heart  so  full  of  charity,  and  a  conscience 
go  void  of  offense,  that  David  Limber  was  on  the 


CENTTJRIA.  25 

point  of  dropping  the  subject,  without  further 
question  or  protest,  but  he  found  himself  impelled 
by  a  vague  sense  of  disquiet,  rather  than  by  any 
well-defined  motive,  to  hazard  a  fresh  objection. 

"I  think,  at  least  I  have  an  impression, 
that  raffling  is  a  wrong  thing — morally  wrong, 
I  mean." 

"  Really,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  "  I  don't  see  and 
I  can't  see  how  a  thing  can  be  wrong  that  is  sim 
ply  and  solely  to  do  good,  and  that  too  for  the 
church." 

"  But  even  for  the  church,"  urged  Mr.  Limber, 
"  ought  you  to  do  good  in  a  bad  way  ?  " 

"  How  can  a  way  be  bad  which  leads  straight 
to  a  good  end  ?  "  rejoined  his  wife ;  "  the  money 
goes  just  as  directly  into  the  treasury  of  the 
church  by  the  raffle  as  it  does  by  the  plate  you 
pass  round  on  Sunday,  and  every  one  who  gives 
has  value  received  in  the  one  case  as  much  as  in 
the  other." 

"I  believe,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  shifting  his 
ground, "  that  raffling  is  against  the  law." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know  anything  about  the  law," 
said  Mrs.  Limber,  "  and,  if  it  comes  to  that,  a 
thousand  things  are  against  the  law,  such  as  wood 
cock  before  the  Fourth  of  July,  or  paying  more 
than  seven  per  cent,  or  six  per  cent.,  which  is  it, 


26 


for  borrowed  money,  and,  when  I  was  in  New 
York  last  month,  Mr.  Bullion  told  me  he  had  been 
fined  five  dollars  for  having  a  dead  dog  carted 
from  the  avenue  in  front  of  his  house — that  was  a 
violation  of  the  health  law,  and  one  of  his  neigh 
bors  had  to  tear  down  a  new  bay-window — that 
was  a  violation  of  the  fire  laws ;  and  things  have 
come  to  such  a  pass  that  it  is  against  the  law  for 
men,  in  some  places,  not  for  women  to  be  sure, 
to  work  more  than  eight  hours  a  day.  Law  in 
deed  ! "  said  Mrs.  Limber,  pressing  her  evident  ad 
vantage,  "  what  kind  of  laws  can  we  expect,  when 
you  send  such  fellows  to  Albany  to  make  them 
as  Jack  Filch,  a  do-nothing  and  know-nothing, 
without  an  honest  hair  in  his  head ;  and,  after  one 
winter  in  the  Legislature,  his  wife  told  Jane  By- 
ass,  the  dressmaker,  that  she  wanted  her  dresses 
to  out-trim  every  lady  in  Spindle,  Mrs.  Limber  in 
cluded  ;  those  were  her  identical  words — and  that 
reminds  me,  Bessie,"  continued  Mrs.  Limber  in 
the  same  breath,  suddenly  changing  her  position, 
and  giving  the  subject  under  discussion  literally 
a  cold  shoulder,  "  that  Mrs.  Byass  has  not  sent 
home  that  pink  silk  which  you  were  to  have  had 
without  fail  last  Saturday  night.  You  must  go 
for  it  yourself  directly  after  breakfast.  Dear  me  1 
what  shall  we  do  with  these  dressmakers  ?  " 


CENTUKIA.  27 

During  Mrs.  Limber's  remarks  her  husband 
had  wisely  resolved  to  abandon  his  attack  upon 
the  raffle  for  the  present,  and  to  renew  it  at  the 
dinner-table,  trusting  to  his  ability  to  reenforce 
his  own  views  by  some  opinions  or  arguments  to 
be  gained  from  authoritative  sources  in  the  inter 
val.  He  was  therefore  well  pleased  with  Mrs. 
Limber's  sudden  diversion,  and  rising  from  the 
table  he  took  leave  of  her  in  his  usual  affectionate 
way,  and  hurried  to  his  factory  and  the  varied 
occupations  of  the  day,  which  embraced  a  wider 
range  than  the  circle  of  his  own  affairs,  for  no 
one  in  Spindle  held  so  many  places  of  trust  as 
David  Limber. 

Dinner  was  wellnigh  dispatched  when,  with 
what  seemed  to  him  a  bold  plunge,  he  opened 
upon  Mrs.  Limber  with  the  query — 

"  My  dear,  have  you  consulted  Mr.  Chancel 
about  this  raffling  project  ?  " 

"  Dear,  no !  I  should  as  soon  think  of  con 
suiting  him  about  the  pattern  of  a  polonaise." 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  the  clergyman  of  a  par 
ish  ought  to  be  the  very  best  person  to  decide 
whether  a  thing  which  his  parishioners  are  going 
to  do  for  the  benefit  of  the  church  is  right  or 
wrong." 

"  Oh,  in  the  abstract,  I  dare  say — anything,  for 


28 


instance,  that  could  go  into  a  sermon  or  about 
which  there  is  an  article  of  religion,  or  a  decree 
of  a  council,  or  something  of  that  sort — but  how 
perfectly  absurd  it  would  be  to  preach  about 
raffling  !  Besides,  dear,  good  Mr.  Chancel  is  just 
as  ignorant  about  practical,  every-day  matters 
and  what  people  ought  to  do  and  ought  not  to 
do  as  ministers  always  are.  You  know,  husband, 
he  is  as  innocent  as  a  babe.  Mrs.  Chancel  says 
herself  that  he  is  such  a  piece  of  perfection  that 
she  has  to  do  things  every  now  and  then  that  are 
the  least  bit  wicked  just  to  keep  up  his  belief  in 
original  sin." 

"  Tf  she  can't  keep  him  sound  in  the  faith  on 
that  doctrine,"  said  Sam  aside  to  Bessie,  "  no 
body  can." 

"  For  shame,  Sam  !  Mrs.  'Chancel l  is  all  my 
fancy  painted  her.'  She's  lovely,  she's —  " 

"When  your  fancy  paints  her  tongue,"  said 
Sam,  "  I  will  let  you  have  my  sharpest  razor  for 
a  model.  It  is  one  of  the  kind  that '  works  deceit 
fully'  sometimes." 

"  Be  quiet,  Sam,  I  want  to  hear  what  papa  is 

saying." 

"  I  was  talking  with  Mr.  Proser  this  morn 
ing,"  Mr.  Limber  went  on  to  say  with  consider 
able  emphasis,  "  about  raffling ;  and  he  thinks  it 


CEXTTTEIA.  29 

sliould  be  wholly  condemned,  on  principle.  He 
regards  it  as  very  pernicious.  He  says  it  is 
against  divine  law  and  human  law." 

"Mr.  Proser  is  a  Presbyterian,"  said  Mrs. 
Limber,  with  her  usual  cheerful  terseness  when 
on  the  defensive. 

"  For  all  that,  I  suppose  a  Presbyterian  can 
form  an  opinion  and  give  information  on  moral 
subjects." 

"  Oh,  to  be  sure ;  as  for  information,  no  one 
can  give  more  than  they  can.  That  is  what  Mrs. 
Chancel  says  about  Presbyterian  clergymen,  that 
they  are  always  imparting  information,  even  in 
their  prayers,  where  there  is  certainly  the  least 
need  of  it ;  and  Dr.  Flatfoot  spends  nearly  as 
much  time  in  reading  notices  as  Mr.  Chancel  does 
in  delivering  his  sermon." 

"  Mr.  Proser  is  not  a  clergyman,"  said  Mr. 
Limber,  "  but  he  is  certainly  a  most  upright,  ex 
cellent  man,  as  everybody  knows." 

"  So  he  is,"  said  Mrs.  Limber  heartily,  as  if  it 
was  a  joy  to  her  to  speak  the  best  she  could,  even 
of  Presbyterian  human  kind,  "  he  is  just  as  good 
as  he  can  be,  and  as  patient  as  Job  with  those 
harum-scarum  children  of  his,  but  he  is  not  re 
sponsible  for  all  Spindle,  nor  is  he  infallible,  so 
far  as  I  know.  As  Mrs.  Chancel  says,  his  good 


30 


ness  is  of  the  nitroglycerine  sort — you  can't 
come  in  contact  with  it  without  its  exploding  and 
blowing  you  to  bits." 

"  But,  my  dear,  Mr.  Proser  is  a  man  of  great 
experience,  his  views  are  entitled  to  respect ;  he 
is  an  elder  in  the  church,  he  has  been  to  the  Gen 
eral  Assembly,  and  he  knows  what  he  speaks 
about.  He  says  that  raffling  is  gambling,  and  a 
raffle  is  a  lottery,  and  he  can  see  no  difference  or 
distinction  between  the  two." 

"  None  so  blind  as  those  who  won't  see," 
said  Mrs.  Limber  ;  "  Mr.  Proser  will  never  forgive 
me  because  you  chose  to  leave  Dr.  Flatfoot 
and  become  a  churchman.  He  can  make  differ 
ences  and  distinctions  fast  enough  when  he 
chooses.  He  thinks  it  sinful  to  take  a  glass  of 
wine  at  a  wedding,  but  you  ought  to  see  him  de 
vour  brandy-peaches  and  tipsy-cake  when  he  can 
get  them.  He  thought  it  was  dreadful  to  go  to 
see  Ristori  in  'Queen  Elizabeth,'  but  he  sends 
his  family  in  a  body  to  the  Hippodrome  and 
the  Minstrels.  There's  a  nice  distinction  !  But, 
as  Mrs.  Chancel  says,  there  are  some  people  who 
will  make  a  wry  face  over  a  quadrille  and  gulp 
down  a  circus." 

"  My  dear  Martha,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  "  I  have 
no  doubt  Mrs.  Chancel  is  a  good  woman,  but  I 


CENTUEIA.  31 

do  wish  you  would  not  quote  her  all  the  time. 
With  all  her  sharpness  she  can't  lift  her  own 
baby,  and  I'll  be  bound  she  doesn't  darn  her  hus 
band's  stockings.  If  I  am  wrong  about  this 
matter,  I  will  stand  corrected,  but  I  don't  want 
to  be  pelted  with  Mrs.  Chancel's  smart  speeches. 
I  would  rather  have  a  pound  of  your  plain  home 
spun  common-sense  than  a  bale  of  her  sar 
casms." 

Feathered  with  this  touch  of  flattery,  Mr. 
Limber's  shaft,  aimed  apparently  at  Mrs.  Chancel, 
found  its  way  to  his  wife's  heart.  She  laughed 
good-humoredly  as  she  replied : 

"  Why,  husband,  I  thought  Mrs.  Chancel  was 
your  particular  admiration.  She  is  all  the  time 
sending  her  love  to  you.  As  for  lifting  that  little 
Dicky,  I  think  she  might  do  it  now  and  then  if 
she  would  make  an  effort,  but  I  should  be  quite  as 
well  satisfied  if  she  kept  his  face  clean,  poor  child  ! 
And  now  I  think  of  it,  speaking  of  children,  I 
promised  to  look  up  old  Widow  Riley  and  those 
orphan  grandchildren  of  hers.  They  have  posi 
tively  nothing  to  eat.  I  must  go  there  before 
dark.  Do  give  me  some  money  to  leave  with 
them." 

Mr.  Limber  produced  his  pocket-book  and  re 
sponded  to  his  wife's  appeal.  He  could  not 


retrace  the  precise  steps  by  which  the  result  had 
been  reached,  but  he  was  conscious  that  his  pro 
mulgation  of  Mr.  Proser's  views  on  raffling  had, 
by  some  succession  of  ideas,  led  to  a  contribution 
of  five  dollars  for  the  benefit  of  a  deserving  fam 
ily  and  to  nothing  else.  Mrs.  Limber,  however, 
seemed  entirely  satisfied,  and,  with  the  money  in 
her  hand  and  a  kiss  on  her  lips,  she  parted  from 
her  husband  intent  for  the  time  being  upon  her 
charitable  errand. 

"Come  and  take  a  look  at  Centuria,"  said 
Bessie  to  her  brother  Sam,  when  they  were  alone 
in  the  dining-room,  "  here  she  is  in  the  bottom  of 
the  cabinet ; "  and  by  the  opening  of  the  doors  the 
waxen  beauty  was  disclosed,  in  all  the  plenitude 
of  her  Parisian  toilet. 

"  The  true  girl  of  the  period,"  said  Sam, 
"  chatelaine  and  all ;  what  an  assortment  she  has 
dangling  there — a  fan  nearly  as  large  as  herself, 
an  umbrella,  a  watch,  an  opera-glass,  vinaigrette, 
card-case,  pencil,  reticule,  eye-glass  ! — why  don't 
you  hook  on  a  prayer-book,  Bessie  ?  Somebody 
may  mistake  her  for  a  Methodist." 

"  Not  with  that  point-lace  trimming  on  her 
dress,"  said  Bessie ;  "they  say  that  belonged  once 
oil  a  time  to  the  Empress  Eugenie." 

"  How  did  Mrs.  Chancel  ever  come  into  poa- 


CENTURIA.  33 

session  of  this  supremely  ridiculous  piece  of  per 
sonal  property  ?  "  inquired  Sam. 

"  Some  fine  lady  of  her  acquaintance  picked  it 
up  in  Paris  at  a  sale,  and,  hearing  about  our  fair, 
has  sent  it  to  Mrs.  Chancel,  who  makes  it  her 
special  contribution.  That  is  the  story,  I  believe  ; 
*  I  tell  the  tale  as  'twas  told  to  me.'  But  dear 
Sam,  do  you  know  I  am  half  sorry  we  have  the 
doll  on  our  hands.  I  have  an  idea  that  some 
thing  disagreeable  will  happen.  Papa  seems  so 
opposed  to  raffling." 

"  What  did  Mrs.  Chancel  say  when  she  heard 
of  his  objections  ?  " 

"  She  said  that  some  people's  consciences 
were  like  her  boy  Dicky,  always  waking  up  and 
creating  a  disturbance  when  they  ought  to  be 
quietly  asleep.  I  think  that  was  very  disre 
spectful  to  papa,  don't  you  ?  and  besides,  it  was 
hardly  kind  to  say  of  Dicky." 

"  Dicky,"  said  Sam,  "  is  not  too  young,  it  seems, 
to  point  a  moral,  though  he  is  too  ugly  to  adorn 
a  tale.  Mrs.  Chancel  did  not  mean  to  be  disre 
spectful  to  papa,  but  she  does  not  intend  to  be 
interfered  with.  The  raffle  is  decreed,  and  to 
abandon  it  now  would  be  like  giving  up  one  of 
the  thirty-nine  articles." 


•  >   0?  T 

tJIIVBESITY 


CHAPTER    III. 


MKS.  LIMBER'S  visit  of  mercy  had  carried  light 
and  love  into  a  dark  place.  She  came  home  with 
the  reflected  glow  still  lingering  on  her  face,  and 
with  thoughts  of  kindness  and  sympathy  filling 
her  heart.  Mr.  Limber  being  occupied  with  some 
business  visitors,  she  went  earlier  than  usual  to 
her  bedroom.  On  entering,  she  was  surprised  to 
find  Bridget,  a  housemaid  of  several  years'  stand 
ing,  the  most  trusted  of  her  servants,  engaged  in 
smoothing  pillows  already  as  smooth  as  pillows 
could  be,  placing  chairs  in  position,  and  doing 
other  unnecessary  things  with  evident  embar 
rassment.  Mrs.  Limber's  divination-cap  was  on 
in  a  moment.  She  scented  trouble.  Her  thoughts 
flew  at  once  from  their  tranquil  height  to  the  dead 
level  of  domestic  cares. 

"  Bless  me,  Bridget,  what  is  it  ?  " 
"  Please,  ma'am,"  said  the  girl,  dropping  a 
half  courtesy,  "  I  was  just  waitiiig-like  for  you,  to 


35 


give  you  warning  that  I'm  leaving  when  my 
month's  up,  and  it's  up  next  Monday,  it  is." 

"  What  do  you  mean,  Bridget ;  has  any  thing 
gone  wrong  down-stairs  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no,  ma'am,"  said  Bridget,  brightening 
into  confidence  in  her  haste  to  repel  any  such 
idea ;  "  I  have  no  fault  to  find  with  any  one  in 
the  house,  leastways  yourself,  and  Mr.  Limber  is 
an  awful  nice  gentleman,  he  is,  and  the  children 
are  all  good,  and  Miss  Bessie  is  a  fine  }Toung  lady, 
and  Mr.  Sam — " 

"Well,  what  in  the  world  takes  you  out  of  a 
good  place  ?  Perhaps  it  is  nothing,  after  all." 

Bridget  grasped  the  solid  foot-board  of  the 
bedstead,  and  looked  down  on  the  carpet ;  at 
last  she  mustered  courage  to  say,  without  look 
ing  at  her  mistress : 

"  It's  Pat  Looney,  ma'am." 

"  Pat  Looney  !  "  Mrs.  Limber  gave  the  name 
an  inflection  which  operated  somewhat  after  the 
manner  of  a  patent  corkscrew  in  making  an  open 
ing  for  Bridget's  pent-up  feelings.  She  looked 
up,  and  they  flowed  freely. 

"  Yes,  ma'am,  Pat  Looney,  you  mind,  him  as 
was  always  speaking  for  me,  and  it's  three  years 
we  have  kept  company,  and  now  he  wants  to  be 
married  next  week,  and — " 


3t>  MKS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

"  You  marry  that  shiftless  fellow  !  Bridget, 
you  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  yourself — a  nice, 
tidy,  capable  girl  like  you.  Why,  he  hasn't  done 
a  stroke  of  work  this  twelvemonth.  I  have  seen 
him  hanging  around  the  Spindle  Shades,  the  low 
est  kind  of  a  drinking-place,  and  I  wonder  he 
hasn't  been  killed  outright  in  some  drunken 
brawl !  Have  you  lost  your  senses,  Bridget  ?  " 

"  Well,  ma'am,  Pat  has  been  idle  at  times 
like,  which  it  is  a  weakness  in  his  bones  and 
pains,  and  his  being  there  was  all  along  of  a  light 
ness  in  his  head ;  and  that  is  gone  now,  and  he 
has  just  come  to  his  luck,  ma'am,  and  he  can  live 
without  work  if  he  chooses." 

"How  can  Pat  Looney  live  without  work? 
If  he  is  an  honest  man  he  cannot  do  it." 

"  Please,  ma'am,  maybe  Pat  wouldn't  like  me 
to  be  telling  it,  but  it's  a  lady  you  are,  and  you 
wouldn't  get  me  into  trouble,  and  it's  himself 
that  has  drawn  a  prize  on  his  policy -ticket,  he 
has,  and  he  has  got  the  money,  he  has,  and  it's  in 
the  bank,  it  is,  and  it's  three  thousand  dollars,  it 
is,  ma'am." 

"  Drawn  a  prize  in  the  lottery  !  "  cried  Mrs. 
Limber ;  "  three  thousand  dollars  on  a  policy- 
office  ticket,  and  now  you  mean  to  marry  him  ! 
Why,  Bridget,  I  never  heard  of  such  a  thing  in 


37 


all  the  days  of  my  life.  It  is  sheer,  downright 
madness.  The  man  will  go  to  destruction,  and 
drag  you  down  with  him,  as  sure  as  you  live, 
and  you  will  never  have  a  day's  peace.  Those 
policy-shops  are  the  vilest  places  in  the  world, 
and  drawing  a  prize  in  them  is  worse  than  losing 
your  money,  because  a  man  never  does  a  day's 
work  after  he  has  once  drawn  a  prize ;  and,  like 
drinking,  it  goes  on  from  bad  to  worse !  Before 
I  would  marry  that  man,  Bridget,  if  I  were  you, 
I  would  scrub  the  cross-walk  in  the  middle  of 
Main  Street  on  my  bare  knees  in  broad  day 
light  ! " 

"  But,  indeed,  Pat  has  done  no  wrong,"  said 
Bridget,  whose  self-possession  was  wholly  re 
stored  by  Mrs.  Limber's  violent  onslaught ;  "  sure 
it  was  his  own  money  he  paid  for  the  policy,  and 
he  took  his  chance  with  the  rest,  and  if  Pat  Loo- 
ney's  luck  is  better  than  theirs,  where's  the  harm, 
and  him  with  his  mother  to  help ;  and  it  was  for 
a  good  end  like,  if  it  was  to  help  him  to  marry, 
for  the  priest  says  a  good  wife  is  from  the  Lord, 
though  it's  meself  that  says  it,  and  the  end  scari 
fies  the  means,  he  says." 

"  Sanctifies  the  means,  Bridget,"  said  Mrs. 
Limber,  "  and  that  is  nothing  else  than  a  false 
Jesuit  doctrine ;  and  as  for  Pat  Looney's  luck,  it 


is  all  chance  and  a  wild-goose  chase ;  the  next 
time  he  will  lose  everything  he  has  got,  and  more 
besides." 

"  But  you  see,  ma'am,  it  was  all  along  partly 
because  of  Pat's  vow,  it  was." 

"  What  vow  could  he  possibly  make  about 
such  a  wicked  thing  as  a  lottery-policy  ?  Vow, 
indeed ! "  said  Mrs.  Limber,  in  a  blaze  at  Pat's 
profanity. 

"  Sure  and  it  was  a  vow  that  he  would  give 
five  dollars  to  the  church  out  of  every  hundred 
dollars,  if  his  ticket  was  lucky,  and  he  has  kept 
his  vow  sacred,  and  it's  meself  that  is  just  after 
coming  from  the  priest,  and  Pat  counted  the 
money  into  his  hand,  and  he  gave  us  his  blessing, 
he  did,  and  a  good  man  is  Father  Mahoney,  and 
it's  good  to  us  both  his  blessing  will  do." 

"  Bridget,  this  is  horrible,"  said  Mrs.  Limber, 
"  to  go  and  throw  yourself  away  in  this  fashion, 
and  then  to  mix  up  religion  and  vows  and  the 
church  with  these  dreadful  policy-shops !  I  do 
think  Father  Mahoney  ought  to  be  ashamed  of 
himself,  but  it's  all  of  a  piece — like  people  like 
priest.  You  marry  that  man,  and  you  are  a 
ruined  girl.  Your  husband  will  be  a  gambler 
and  a  drunkard  all  his  days,  and  perhaps  a  bur 
glar  or  a  murderer,  and  he  will  end  in  the  State- 


PAT  LOONEY'S  LUCK.  39 

prison  or  on  the  gallows.  This  is  just  as  certain 
as  the  sun  is  to  rise ;  gamblers  will  stake  their 
money,  and  their  wives,  and  their  children,  and 
their  own  souls,  until  every  thing  is  lost.  If  I 
had  known  or  suspected  that  any  girl  in  my  house 
was  mixed  up  with  such  wickedness,  I  should 
have  dismissed  her  on  the  spot,  the  moment  I 
found  it  out.  I  hope  to  goodness  he  has  never 
brought  any  of  his  hateful  lottery-tickets  into  this 
house!" 

"  And  indeed,  ma'am,"  said  Bridget,  turning 
on  her  heel  and  giving  her  head  a  toss,  "  it's  very 
hard  you  are  on  poor  Pat  for  drawing  as  honest 
a  prize  as  ever  was  drawed  in  a  lottery,  seeing 
you  are  going  to  have  one  yourself,  by  what  I 
hear,  to  keep  your  own  priest's  head  above  water, 
which  it  is  himself  can't  do  at  all ;  and  it  is  a  true 
saying,  that  '  people  who  live  in  glass  houses 
shouldn't  throw  stories  at  their  neighbors.'  " 

And  Bridget  sailed  ont  of  the  room  and  down 
the  hall  before  Mrs.  Limber  could  recover  her 
breath. 

"  Is  the  girl  crazy  ?  "  she  said  to  herself,  and 
then,  as  the  full  meaning  of  her  parting  words 
dawned  upon  her,  she  added,  more  amused  than 
indignant,  "  was  there  ever  such  impudence  ? 
Our  innocent  little  raffle,  for  the  best  of  causes, 


4:0  MBS. 

compared  to  a  vulgar  lottery !  You  might  as  well 
compare  our  Sam  to  Pat  Looney." 

And,  as  Mrs.  Limber,  with  a  little  more  vigoi 
and  rapidity  than  usual,  loosened  her  dress  and 
jerked  off  her  undersleeves,  she  relieved  her 
feelings  with  the  exclamation : 

"  Dear  me  !  what  shall  we  do  with  these  Bid 
dies?" 


CHAPTER  IV. 

A     RUBRICAL     RECTOR. 

MR.  LIMBER,  without  knowing  that  his  con 
science  was  like  Master  Dicky  Chancel,  found 
it  a  very  restless  companion.  It  kept  up  a  per 
petual  buzzing,  like  one  of  the  great  fly-wheels 
of  his  own  factory,  and  set  in  motion  all  manner 
of  doubts  and  questionings  as  to  the  propriety 
of  the  raffle,  and  new  reasons  why  he  ought  to 
bestir  himself  in  opposition,  in  spite  of  Mrs.  Lim 
ber's  positive  off-hand  assurances  in  its  support. 

"  There  is  no  use  in  arguing  or  contending 
with  the  women  when  they  are  bent  on  having 
their  own  way,"  was  his  sensible  conclusion  after 
a  long  course  of  reflection.  "  I  will  try  Mr.  Chan 
cel  myself.  If  I  am  wrong,  perhaps  he  will  set 
me  right ;  and,  if  I  am  right,  he  must  interfere 
and  put  a  stop  to  Mrs.  Limber's  raffle.  I  ought 
to  have  gone  to  him  before." 

The  little  rectory  adjoined  the  church  of  St. 
Parvus,  and  in  fact  was  connected  with  its  rear 


by  an  old  woodshed,  to  which  Mr.  Chancel,  with 
the  aid  of  the  village  carpenter,  had  striven  to 
impart  the  air  of  a  mediaeval  cloister,  but  with 
indifferent  success.  The  rector's  study  was  on 
the  ground-floor,  and  commanded  a  view  of  his 
front-gate.  In  this  study,  somewhat  scantily 
equipped  so  far  as  as  his  professional  needs  were 
concerned,  the  most  imposing  article  of  furniture 
was  the  worthy  rector  himself.  He  was  not  a  tall 
man  nor  a  large  man,  nor  was  there  anything 
striking  in  the  expression  of  his  smoothly -shaved 
face,  his  broad  forehead,  or  his  rather  dull  blue 
eye.  But  he  was  intensely  clerical  in  his  ap 
pearance,  and  carried  himself  as  though  he  was 
perpetually  in  full  view  of  a  congregation.  In 
tellectually  he  was  afflicted  with  a  mild  confu 
sion  of  ideas  respecting  the  cure  of  souls,  church 
creeds,  communions,  forms,  and  furniture,  under 
the  force  of  which  he  had  gravitated  into  that 
extreme  wing  of  the  church  militant  which,  by 
its  own  movements,  has  most  effectually  severed 
its  communications  with  Christian  charity  and 
common  -  sense.  His  small,  natural  light  had 
thus  been  hopelessly  hid  under  a  bushel  of  the 
densest  ecclesiasticism.  Mrs.  Chancel  herself 
was  accustomed  to  say  that  he  had  been  let  down 
from  the  surface  of  the  earth  at  an  early  age  into 


A   RTJBBICAL   RECTOK.  43 

a  church  school,  and  then  a  little  deeper  into  a 
church  college,  and  then  deeper  still  into  a  theo 
logical  seminary,  from  the  lowest  depths  of  which 
he  had  tunneled  off  into  a  succession  of  clerical 
employments  on  the  same  dead  level ;  and  while 
wandering  in  these  catacombs  she  had  fallen  in 
with  him,  and  he  had  married  her,  which,  the 
lively  lady  always  added,  he  never  would  have 
done  had  he  seen  her  by  daylight. 

Aside  from  the  injustice  to  herself,  Mrs. 
Chancel's  description  was  hardly  overdrawn. 
Her  good  husband,  not  content  wyith  the  quiet 
duties  and  rewards  of  his  country  cure,  fancied 
himself  a  theologian  and  a  polemic,  and  was 
best  satisfied  when  excavating  in  some  contract 
ed  and  subterranean  vein,  which  had  its  local  fire 
damp,  and  occasional  explosions,  but  rarely  ena 
bled  him  to  make  any  contribution  to  the  upper 
world,  beyond  an  occasional  fossil  or  the  verte 
brae  of  some  extinct  animal.  And  yet,  at  heart, 
and  when  off  his  rickety  stilts  as  a  High-Church 
man,  Mr.  Chancel  was  a  good  fellow,  fond  of  a 
quiet  joke,  true  to  his  high  function,  and  yet 
easily  remitted  to  the  good  things  of  this  life,  of 
which,  in  truth,  he  had  but  a  short  allowance,  and 
even  priding  himself  on  his  skill  in  brewing  a 
kind  of  patristic  punch,  which  in  his  earlier  days 


44 


was  in  great  vogue  in  certain  thirsty  corners  of 
those  same  catacombs  whereof  Mrs.  Chancel 
spoke. 

Mr.  Limber's  appearance  at  the  rectory-gate, 
in  the  forenoon  of  a  week-day,  was  almost  as 
great  a  surprise  to  Mr.  Chancel  as  if  one  of  the 
early  fathers,  whose  devotion  to  the  church  he 
humbly  strove  to  emulate,  had  suddenly  de 
scended  to  the  sidewalk.  His  first  impulse  was 
to  rush  up-stairs  and  exchange  his  morning 
dressing-gown  for  the  rigid  clerical  ccstume,  by 
which  he  endeavored  in  his  daily  walk  to  inspire 
the  people  of  Spindle  with  a  due  reverence  for 
the  cloth.  But  Mr.  Limber  had  alrealy  caught 
sight  of  the  rector,  and  was  on  the  porch.  The 
magnetism  of  his  genial  presence  drew  Mr.  Chan 
cel  to  the  door,  which  he  threw  wide  open  to 
give  free  entrance  and  welcome  to  his  parish 
ioner. 

w  My  dear  sir,  this  is  an  unusual,  an  unex 
pected  pleasure.  Walk  into  my  study  ;  will  you 
seat  yourself  in  this  easy-chair?  I  trust  Mrs. 
Limber  is  well,  and  your  lovely  family.  You 
appear  to  be  enjoying  your  usual  excellent 
health." 

Mr.  Limber  reciprocated  these  cordial  greet 
ings,  and  seated  himself  with  more  than  ordinary 


A   RUBRICAL   RECTOR.  45 

deliberation,  feeling  quite  at  a  loss  how  to  in 
troduce  the  topic  which  had  induced  his  visit. 

But  the  worthy  rector  was  eager  to  seize  the 
opportunity  of  interesting  his  visitor  in  the  line 
of  excavation  which  he  had  immediately  in 
hand. 

"You  find  me  hard  at  work,  Mr.  Limber," 
said  he,  waving  his  hand  in  deprecation  of  the 
disordered  state  of  his  study,  and  his  own  unpre 
sentable  attire,  various  portions  of  which  indi 
cated  that,  though  Mrs.  Chancel's  needle  might 
be  as  sharp  as  her  tongue,  it  was  not  as  ready  for 
active  service  ;  "  I  am  engaged  on  the  sixth  ser 
mon  in  my  course  on  the  rubric,  whjch  I  may 
mention  to  you  in  confidence  will  be  extended  to 
twelve,  and  which  I  propose  to  give  to  the 
church,  I  may  say  the  world,  under  the  title  of 
*  Caput  Ecclesise,  or  the  Rubric  reinstated,'  the 
chief  title,  as  you  perceive,  being  an  adaptation, 
I  trust  not  inapt,  of  the  ancient  ecclesiological 
designation  of  that  part  of  the  church  in  which 
the  altar,  I  will  not  say  high  altar,  was  erected 
according  to  the  canons  of  Gothic  architecture, 
and  the  minor,  or  sub-title,  indicating  the  great 
need  of  the  church  at  the  present  time  —  the 
need  of  what  we  may  call,  Mr.  Limber,  a  new 
rubrication.  I  trust,  sir,  you  are  alive  to  the  im- 


portance  of  this  great  subject.  You  stand  by 
the  rubric,  do  you  not,  Mr.  Limber?" 

"It  is  rather  fine  print,"  said  Mr.  Limber, 
evading  the  question. 

"Yes,"  said  the  rector,  with  increasing  ani 
mation.  "  Lamentably  true.  '  Rubric,'  Mr.  Lim 
ber,  is  an  equivalent  term  for  '  Law.'  The  an 
cient  Romans,  as  you  perhaps  remember,  enti 
tled  their  laws  with  red  letters,  and  yet  the  mod 
ern  Church  abandons  this  most  essential  symbcl- 
ism,  and  the  rubric  is  seen  in  black,  a  symbol 
itself  of  a  degeneracy  from  which  I  hope  to  take 
a  humble  part  in  rescuing  the  Church.  The  ru 
bric  should  be  in  large,  conspicuous  Gothic  char 
acters,  and  in  the  original  color  which  belongs  to 
it;  you  say  well,  Mr.  Limber.  I  rejoice  in  the 
incidental  confirmation  of  my  views  afforded  by 
your  wise  suggestion." 

"I  was  not  aware,"  said  Mr.  Limber ;  "that 
you  laid  so  much  stress  on  the  rubric.  I  thought 
it  was  your  sailing  directions,  so  to  speak.  I  did 
not  suppose  it  was  chart  and  compass." 

"  The  common  error,"  said  the  rector ;  "  rubii- 
city,  Mr.  Limber,  is  the  sheet-anchor  of  the  Church. 
Take  a  single  but  conclusive  example,  the  deplor 
able  abuse  of  joint  communion  between  church 
men  and  non-churchmen.  The  rubric  is  explicit 


A   RUBRICAL   RECTOR.  47 

here  and  settles  the  case.  It  reads,  '  And  there 
shall  none  be  admitted  to  the  Holy  Communion 
until  such  time  as  he  be  confirmed  or  ready  and 
desirous  to  be  confirmed.'  Now  let  us  throw  it 
into  the  form  of  a  syllogism  :  no  one  can  confirm 
but  the  bishop,  consequently  no  one  can  right 
fully  commune  unless  confirmed  by  the  bishop, 
consequently  only  confirmed  persons  can  com 
mune  together.  Here  you  have  the  grand  prin 
ciple  of  church  exclusion,  Mr.  Limber ;  but  let 
me  read  you  an  extract  from  my  sermon  on  which 
I  am  now  engaged,  in  which  I  undertake  to  de 
monstrate  that  the  commandments,  although  read 
according  to  the  rubric  of  our  Church  at  the  right 
side  of  the  altar  or  '  table '  as  our  Prayer-Book 
unfortunately  has  it,  and  not  at  the  north  side, 
according  to  the  rubric  of  the  mother-Church,  are 
virtually  read  in  the  same  place,  inasmuch  as  in 
either  case,  by  tradition  and  ecclesiastical  under 
standing,  the  place  where  the  altar  stands  is  theo 
retically  the  east,  and  therefore — " 

Mr.  Limber's  internal  fly-wheel  was  buzzing 
with  immense  velocity.  He  made  an  effort  and 
broke  in  abruptly : 

"  My  dear  Mr.  Chancel,  pray  let  me  hear  that 
another  time.  I  ran  in,  at  an  odd  moment,  to 
speak  with  you  about  the  church  fair  which  the 


ft*        oar     ^w.* 


48  MRS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

ladies  are  getting  upt  You  know  about  it,  I  pre 
sume." 

"  Certainly,"  replied  Mr.  Chancel,  depositing 
his  manuscript  on  the  table  with  evident  reluc 
tance.  "  I  am  aware  that  it  is  in  contemplation 
and  preparation.  A  most  meritorious  service. 
Church  fairs  are  of  great  antiquity.  Like  the 
rubric,  they  are  of  Roman  origin,  as  the  name  in 
dicates — ferict)  a  holiday.  Servius  Tullius,  I  be 
lieve,  established  a  fair  at  which  the  laws  were 
proclaimed ;  afterward  they  were  consecrated  by 
being  appointed  on  saints'  days,  and  you  may 
remember  that,  by  royal  grant,  the  Bishop  of 
Winchester  received  the  revenues  of  the  fair  of 
St.  Giles,  which  lasted  for  sixteen  days,  during 
which  all  merchants  who  sold  wares  in  the  city  or 
within  seven,  some  say  seventeen  miles  of  it,  for 
feited  them  to  the  bishop.  A  noble  tribute  to 
the  Church,  Mr.  Limber." 

"  Rather  an  impracticable  one  in  our  day," 
said  Mr.  Limber,  hastening  forward  several  cen 
turies  and  bringing  the  conversation  directly  to 
the  day  and  date  then  present ;  "  but  about  this 
fair  of  our  ladies,  which  I  suppose  is  all  well 
enough  meant,  it  seems  to  me  that  there  is  one 
thing  which  they  intend  to  do  that  is  wrong,  and 
I  have  come  to  ask  you  about  it." 


A   RUBEICAL   KEOTOE.  49 

Mr.  Chancel  looked  at  his  parishioner  with  a 
mildly  expectant  air,  strikingly  in  contrast  with 
David  Limber's  energetic  speech. 

"  It  is  the  raffling  that  I  mean ;  setting  up  a 
hundred-dollar  doll  and  other  nonsensical  things, 
I  dare  say,  to  be  raffled  for.  It  appears  to  me 
that  this  is  against  good  morals,  and  I  believe 
that  it  is  against  the  law.  The  fair  is  to  be  held 
in  my  house,  and  I  do  not  want  to  violate  either 
morality  or  law,  and  I  would  like  to  know  what 
you  think  about  it  and  whether  you  will  use  your 
authority  to  prevent  it." 

"I  presume,  Mr.  Limber,"  said  the  rector, 
with  great  deliberation,  "  that  you  address  tjiis 
question  to  me,  not  in  my  individual  capacity,  but 
as  the  incumbent  of  this  parish." 

"  Upon  my  word,"  said  our  honest  manufact 
urer,  feeling  the  ground  beginning  to  slip  away 
from  him  here,  as  it  had  done  at  his  own  table, 
"  I  want  to  know  whether  this  thing  is  right  or 
whether  it  is  wrong,  and  I  do  not  see  that  it 
makes  any  difference  whether  your  opinion  is 
given  in  your  dressing-gown  or  your  surplice." 

"  The  point  of  my  inquiry  is  this,"  said  Mr. 
Chancel,  pursuing  the  even  tenor  of  his  speech, 
"  right  and  wrong  are  relative  terms,  Mr.  Limber, 
and,  in  the  case  supposed,  the  answer  might  de- 


50 


pend  upon  varying  considerations,  presentihg  in 
one  aspect  an  abstract  proposition,  and  in  the 
other  a  question  of  expediency.  Even  lotteries, 
under  certain  conditions,  have  been  comprehend 
ed  within  the  category  of  pious  uses.  A  tempo 
rary  structure  is  said  to  have  been  erected  at  the 
west  door  of  St.  Paul's  on  one  occasion  for  the 
drawing  of  prizes  in  money,  plate,  tapestry,  and 
armor ;  and  I  believe  it  is  customary,  as  an  ad 
junct  of  a  strictly  eleemosynary  character,  to 
make  a  moderate  use  of  the  lot  or  chance  in  con 
nection  with  fairs  of  this  description.  Person 
ally,  as  a  speculation  in  the  higher  region  of 
morals,  I  might  discuss  the  subject  with  you 
casuistically ;  but,  should  it  be,  and  I  am  unable 
to  affirm  the  contrary  without  further  informa 
tion,  that  the  bishop  of  this  diocese,  upon  due 
deliberation,  or  even  by  implication,  as  by  his 
presence  or  expressed  approbation,  had  sanc 
tioned  the  holding  of  a  fair  at  which  such  an  ac 
cessory  was  introduced,  it  would  ill  become  me 
to  hazard  an  official  decision  that  this  was  erro 
neous.  I  will  never  commit  an  act  of  contumacy 
against  my  bishop,  Mr.  Limber,  never;  and  I 
should  hesitate  to  pronounce  a  private  judgment 
where  the  subject  is  one  which  might  properly 
be  referred  to  my  superior  for  adjudication." 


A   RUBRICAL   RECTOR.  51 

"  But,  if  it  is  against  the  law  of  the  land," 
urged  Mr.  Limber,  "  are  you  not  bound  to  take 
note  of  that,  and  instruct  your  parishioners  ?  " 

"  Not  in  the  present  absolute,  I  will  not  say 
unhappy,  divorce  of  Church  and  state,"  re)  lied 
the  rector,  promptly.  "  You  will  bear  me  wit 
ness  that  I  have  never  preached  politics  or  med 
dled  with  the  civil  powers.  No,  sir,  I  air.  clear 
of  that  imputation,  however  obnoxious  to  il  other 
pulpits  may  be." 

"  Other  pulpits  "  meant  Dr.  Flatfoot,  who  had 
just  preached  and  published  a  sermon  telling 
some  pla*in  truths  about  the  habits  of  the  manu 
facturing  population  of  Spindle,  giving  the  sta 
tistics  of  drunkenness  and  crime,  and  demanding 
an  enforcement  of  the  Sunday  and  excise  laws. 
But  Mr.  Limber  was  too  much  occupied  with  the 
subject  in  hand  to  notice  this  side-thrust. 

"  Then  I  am  to  understand,"  said  he,  rising 
and  turning  toward  the  door,  "  that  it  comes  to 
this,  Mr.  Chancel — you  decline  to  interfere." 

"  Just  so  ;  to  interfere — the  precise  word,  my 
dear  sir.  Etymologically,  it  is  derived  from  the 
Latin  inter-ferio-ferire,  "  to  strike  between  " — a 
most  apt  derivative  and  descriptive  word,  giving 
you,  as  a  practical  man,  my  exact  position.  It  is 
in  many  instances  the  duty  of  a  priest  to  strike 


52 


against  the  foes  of  his  church,  but  never  to  stiike 
between  friends  or  to  foment  occasions  of  dis 
cord.  A  bishop  is  to  be  no  striker,  and  cer 
tainly  a  poor  rector  should  not  be  one." 

Mr.  Limber  shook  hands  and  said  good-by  as 
cheerfully  as  he  could,  but  with  a  feeling  that 
somehow  he  was  being  baffled  at  every  point, 
and  as  if  it  were  his  own  fault.  There  was  an 
awkward  sense  of  discomfiture  in  his  leave- 
taking,  but  Mr.  Chancel's  was  as  genial  as  at  his 
first  greeting. 

"  Good-by,  my  dear  sir — my  best  regards  to 
Mrs.  Limber.  You  will  be  sure  to  come  again; 
my  next  sermon  will  interest  you  as  a  manufact 
urer.  It  will  be  on  the  symbolism  of  vestments, 
and,  by-the-way,  I  may  mention  to  you  in  confi 
dence  that,  in  that  discourse,  while  I  establish 
the  identity  of  the  surplice  with  the  isiaca  of 
the  priests  of  Tsis,  I  utterly  confute  the  absurd 
Puritanical  prejudice  against  it  on  that  account. 
Come  again,  Mr.  Limber.  I  rely  upon  you  as  a 
rubricist." 

If  the  front-gate  closed  with  something  of  a 
slam  it  in  nowise  disturbed  the  serenity  of  the 
good  rector,  who  went  back  to  his  excavations 
with  a  complacent  smile,  after  lighting  a  pipe, 
which  looked  as  if  it  had  been  bought  at  the  first 
fair  after  the  discovery  of  tobacco. 


CHAPTER  V. 


ME.  LIMBER  walked  from  the  rectory  at  a 
rapid  pace,  in  the  direction  of  his  factory,  with 
the  full  intention  of  reaching  that  haven  of  rest 
at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  But,  as  he 
turned  the  corner  of  the  street  which  led  from 
the  Broadway  of  Spindle  to  the  manufacturing 
district,  he  suddenly  stopped.  Mr.  Limber  was 
an  inventor,  and,  like  other  inventors,  he  had  his 
sudden  inspirations.  He  hesitated  for  a  moment, 
as  if  to  assure  himself  that  he  was  right  in  obey 
ing  the  new  impulse  which  controlled  his  move 
ments,  and  then  deliberately  turned  about  and 
retraced  his  steps  toward  the  main  street,  saying 
as  he  did  so,  "  Why  didn't  I  think  of  John  Cal 
endar  before  ?  " 

John  Calendar  was  the  best  of  the  half-score 
of  lawyers  who  went  up  to  the  circuits  and  gen 
eral  terms  of  the  judicial  department  in  which 
Spindle  was  situated.  Being  a  man  of  method 


54: 


and  moderation,  with  a  horror  of  debt,  and  a 
habit  of  paying  his  bills  promptly,  he  had  ac 
quired  a  reputation  for  wealth,  and,  being  a  man 
who  was  more  given  to  thinking  than  to  talking, 
he  had  also  acquired  a  reputation  for  wisdom. 
In  reality  he  was  neither  as  rich  nor  as  wise  as 
people  supposed,  but,  as  he  made  no  pretensions 
to  either  quality,  it  was  not  his  fault  if  he  was 
doubly  overrated.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was 
even  a  better  lawyer  than  his  clients  imagined, 
and,  besides  his  knowledge  of  the  law,  he  was 
versed  in  many  things,  among  others  in  human 
nature  and  the  ways  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Calendar  was  a  stanch  Presbyterian,  and 
yet  it  was  he  who  had  counseled  David  Limber, 
when  he  sought  his  advice,  to  quit  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church,  and  go  with  his  wife  to  St. 
Parvus.  "  Do  not  hesitate,"  he  had  said  to  his 
client  and  old  friend,  as  he  saw  him  wavering 
under  a  conflict  of  views,  "  go  with  your  wife,  by 
all  means;  you  will  change  neither  your  religion 
nor  your  creed;  the  family  is  older  than  the 
church.  You  are  only  a  private  and  not  an 
officer  in  the  Presbyterian  ranks,  and  are  not 
responsible  for  the  system,  nor  is  it  with  you  a 
matter  of  sentiment  as  it  is  with  your  wife ;  to 
her  the  church-life  to  which  she  is  accustomed  is 


55 


a  part  of  her  being,  and  she  never  could  be  at 
ease  elsewhere,  while  you  can  accommodate  your 
self  easily  to  a  change.  For  personal  piety  the 
church  of  Jeremy  Taylor  and  Wilberforce  ought 
to  be  as  good  as  the  church  of  Calvin  or  John 
Knox.  Its  form  of  government  would  be  intol 
erable  to  me,  but  it  will  not  disturb  you.  Its 
order  of  worship  is  superior  to  ours — " 

"I  didn't  suppose  you  would  admit  that," 
said  Mr.  Limber,  somewhat  startled. 

"  Certainly  I  do,  not  to  the  praise  of  Epis 
copacy,  but  to  the  blame  of  Presbyterianism. 
The  Anglican  Church,  or  its  American  offshoot, 
has  no  more  exclusive  right  to  the  Te  Deum,  or 
the  prayers  of  the  early  fathers,  which  they  have 
taken  from  the  Latin  Church,  .than  they  have  to 
the  Lord's  prayer  or  the  Apostles'  creed,  but  as  a 
squatter's  title  is  sometimes  made  good  by  pre 
scription,  our  Presbyterian  churches,  following  a 
bad  extreme  of  Puritanism,  leave  them  in  posses 
sion  of  the  liturgy.  It  will  be  a  great  comfort  to 
you,  at  least  it  would  be  to  me,  to  be  in  a  church 
where  you  will  have  some  idea  beforehand  what 
is  going  to  happen  at  a  christening,  a  wedding, 
or  a  funeral.  I  would  be  an  Episcopalian  myseli 
if  it  were  not  for  Episcopacy." 

"  The  service  is  very  monotonous,"  said  David 


56 


Limber,  feeling  bound  to  make  some  show  of 
resistance. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  Calendar,  "it  certainly  is, 
but  it  is  the  monotone  of  the  deepest  needs  and 
highest  aspirations  of  our  fallen,  redeemed  hu 
manity,  and,  to  the  English-speaking  race,  the 
book  of  Common  Prayer  must  ever  be,  next  to 
the  Psalms  of  David,  the  most  perfect  medium  of 
intercourse  between  earth  and  heaven  which  the 
spirit  of  devotion  ever  cast  in  the  mould  of  hu 
man  speech." 

Aided  by  such  counsel  as  this,  Mr.  Limber,  to 
whose  honest  nature  substance  was  more  than 
form,  was  easily  won  over  to  the  Prayer-Book, 
submitting  for  its  sake,  as  he  used  sometimes  to 
say,  to  a  great  deal  of  sing-song  in  the  sermons. 
This  happy  result  was  mainly  due  to  Mr.  Calen 
dar's  good  offices,  but  Mrs.  Limber  never  knew 
for  how  much  of  her  domestic  peace  and  happi 
ness  she  was  indebted  to  the  sharp-eyed  lawyer, 
whom  she  was  apt  to  regard  as  a  bigot  in  his 
religion,  an  ascetic  in  his  life,  and  a  bore  in  his 
conversation. 

Mr.  Limber  was  fortunate  enough  to  find  the 
lawyer  in  his  office,  a  little  building  adjoining 
the  old-fashioned  house  which  he  had  made  thor 
oughly  comfortable  according  to  his  own  ideas, 


ME.  CALENDAR'S  CODE.  57 

after  the  somewhat  luxurious  though  not  extrav 
agant  habits  of  his  profession.  He  greeted  his 
client  very  cordially. 

"  I  thought  I  should  have  a  visit  from  you 
this  week.  We  shall  begin  to  take  testimony  in 
the  patent  case  next  month,  and  I  want  the  list 
of  your  witnesses." 

"  It  was  not  that  which  brought  me  here  to 
day,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  seating  himself  by  the 
table  and  going  at  once  to  his  point.  "  I  want 
to  ask  you  some  questions  about  another  matter. 
Perhaps  I  am  foolish  about  it,  but  you  must  set 
tle  it  for  me.  You  have  heard  of  Mrs.  Limber's 
church  fair  that  is  to  be." 

"  Yes,  to  be  sure.  Our  Lillie  is  working  for 
it  like  a  little  beaver." 

"  Well,  Calendar,  they  are  bent  on  having  a 
raffle  at  this  fair  which  I  suppose  is  a  common 
thing,  tut  I  have  got  it  into  my  head  that  it 
ought  not  to  be,  and  I  want  to  ask  you  first  of  all 
this  simple  question :  Is  raffling  right  or  wrong  ?  " 

"  Unquestionably,  wrong." 

"  Do  you  mean  morally  wrong  or  wrong  be 
cause  it  is  against  the  law  ?  " 

"  Both.  It  is  wrong  by  itself  and  in  itself,  and 
wrong,  besides,  because  the  law  of  the  land  pro 
hibits  it." 


58 


"  Very  good,  but  now  I  want  you  to  tell  me 
why  it  is  wrong  and  how  it  is  wrong.  I  want 
you  to  explain  this  thing  and  lay  down  the  law 
to  me,  both  as  to  the  moral  part  and  the  legal 
part,  just  as  if  I  were  a  jury  and  you  were  a 
judge  or  a  chief-justice." 

And  Mr.  Limber  put  on  a  concentrated  air  of 
attention,  befitting  twelve  single  jurors  rolled  into 
one,  waiting  for  the  judge's  charge  at  the  close 
of  a  long  trial. 

"  The  moral  part,  as  you  call  it,"  said  the 
newly-invested  chief-justice,  "  is  very  simple.  It 
rests  on  two  plain  facts  which  no  one  can  dispute. 
Fact  number  one,  that  there  is  in  our  human  nature, 
no  matter  how  it  got  there,  an  inherent,  univer 
sal  disposition  to  make  chance  a  means  of  gain ; 
fact  number  two,  that  this  natural  passion  serves 
no  good  end,  and,  on  the  contrary,  has  always 
and  everywhere,  the  world  over,  proved  a  fruitful 
and  perpetual  source  of  idleness,  misery,  and 
crime,  so  much  so  that  the  most  advanced  com 
munities  absolutely  prohibit  its  exercise,  either  on 
a  large  scale  in  government  lotteries,  or  on  a  small 
scale  in  bar-room  raffles  or  church-fair  raffles.  In 
other  words,  society  says  to  every  man,  woman, 
and  child,  that  to  pay  money  or  give  any  valuable 
thing  for  the  chance  of  gaining  a  larger  sum  or 


ME.  CALENDAR'S  CODE.  59 

something  of  greater  value,  is  so  pernicious  a 
thing  in  itself  and  in  its  effects  that  it  shall  not 
be  tolerated.  This  is  the  testimony  of  society  to 
the  moral  evil,  and  here  comes  in  what  you  call 
the  legal  part ;  because  the  evil  is  so  universal 
and  far  reaching,  our  own  State  has  undertaken  to 
stamp  it  out  by  the  most  solemn  prohibitions." 

"  I  was  certain  it  was  against  the  law,"  said 
David  Limber,  eagerly. 

"  Against  the  law  !  My  dear  sir,  the  prohi 
bition  is  made  a  part  of  the  constitution  of  New 
York.  This  is  a  very  different  thing,  you  see, 
from  a  law,  which  one  Legislature  may  make  and 
the  next  Legislature  repeal." 

"  That  disposes  of  my  wife's  Jack  Filch  argu 
ment,"  said  Mr.  Limber  to  himself. 

"  Yes,"  continued  Mr.  Calendar,  "  this  prohi 
bition  is  a  part  of  our  social  compact ;  of  the  fun 
damental  law,  as  we  lawyers  call  it.  Let  me 
read  it  to  you." 

"  That  is  right,"  said  Mr.  Limber.  "  I  like  to 
have  chapter  and  verse." 

"  Very  well,  here  it  is,  article  first,  section 
tenth  of  the  constitution,  the  last  clause  :  '  Nor 
shall  any  lottery  hereafter  be  authorized  or  any 
sale  of  lottery  tickets  allowed  within  this  State"' 

"  But  does  that  include  raffles  ?  " 


60  MRS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

"  Yes,  it  does ;  the  word  '  raffle '  is  only  an 
other  name  for  l  lottery,'  the  difference  being  that, 
in  a  lottery,  money  is  paid  for  the  chance  of  win 
ning  money,  and  in  a  raffle,  money  is  paid  for  the 
chance  of  winning  some  article  of  more  or  less 
value.  The  word  *  lottery  '  in  the  constitution 
covered  both  descriptions,  and  when  the  Legisla 
ture  came  to  make  laws,  to  enforce  the  prohibition 
of  the  constitution,  it  used  both  words,  '  lottery 
and  c  raffle.'  I  will  read  the  law  to  you  present 
ly,  but,  just  now,  let  us  keep  in  mind  that  the 
provisions  of  the  constitution  and  the  law  rest 
on  the  conceded  moral  mischief  of  the  thing. 
What  is  condemned  is  not  made  wrong  by  the 
law,  but  the  law  condemns  it  because  it  is  wrong. 
So  you  see  that  a  lottery  or  a  raffle  is  an  immoral 
and  illegal  thing,  not  to  be  permitted  on  any 
pretense  whatever,  whether  to  put  money  into 
the  exchequer  of  a  State,  the  purse  of  a  gambler, 
or  the  treasury  of  a  church.  Have  1  made  this 
clear  to  you  ?  " 

"  Perfectly,"  said  David  Limber,  "  but  I  must 
ask  one  or  two  more  questions  :  has  it  ever  been 
decided  by  the  courts  that  a  raffle  is  wrong  and 
illegal  if  it  is  in  aid  of  a  good  object?  That  is 
my  wife's  strong  point.  She  says  that  a  raffle 
like  hers,  for  a  purely  good  object,  cannot  possi- 


61 


bly  be  against  good  morals  or  against  the  law. 
Has  such  a  case  ever  come  up  ?  " 

"  Certainly  it  has,  and  before  our  highest 
court.  I  will  tell  you  how  it  came  about :  There 
was  hardly  ever  a  more  commendable  object  in 
itself  than  the  American  Art  Union.  It  was  an 
association  devoted  to  the  promotion  of  the  fine 
arts  and  the  encouragement  of  American  artists. 
Any  one  could  subscribe,  and  by  paying  five  dol 
lars,  yearly,  become  a  member.  The  money  was 
used  to  maintain  a  free  gallery  for  the  exhibition 
of  works  of  American  artists,  to  issue  to  each 
member  a  fine  engraving  every  year,  and  a  copy 
of  the  Art  Journal,  published  monthly  by  the 
association,  and  to  the  purchase  of  original  paint 
ings  by  American  artists.  Thus  the  subscriber 
received  for  his  five  dollars,  in  the  use  of  the  gal 
lery,  in  the  engraving  and  the  journal,  and  in  the 
satisfaction  he  took  in  the  promotion  of  American 
art,  a  full  equivalent  for  his  money,  and  he  was 
interested  besides,  as  a  part  owner,  in  all  the 
works  of  art  purchased  during  the  year  by  the 
association.  At  the  close  of  the  year,  all  the 
pictures  were  distributed  by  lot  among  the  mem 
bers,  and  each  one  had  a  chance  of  getting  a 
picture  worth  perhaps  fifty,  perhaps  five  hundred 
dollars,  a  landscape  by  Durand,  a  classic  head  by 
5 


62  MRS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

Gray,  or  a  mountain-dell  by  Kensett.  No  won 
der  the  Art  Union  was  popular ;  its  fine  gallery 
on  Broadway  was  a  centre  of  attraction  and  a 
new  incentive  to  the  pencil  of  every  artist.  In 
1851  no  less  than  thirteen  thousand  subscribers 
were  enrolled,  yielding  the  handsome  sum  of  six 
ty-five  thousand  dollars  for  the  cultivation  of1 
American  art.  All  of  a  sudden  the  statute  pro 
hibiting  raffling  was  set  in  motion  against  this 
praiseworthy  association  and  its  philanthropic 
managers,  including  one  very  learned  judge,  sev 
eral  very  learned  lawyers,  and  a  number  of  very 
eminent  citizens,  all  of  whom  were  arraigned  as 
violators  of  the  law." 

"What  became  of  the  case?"  asked  Mr. 
Limber,  as  much  interested  as  if  he  had  been  the 
holder  of  an  Art  Union  certificate  of  membership. 

"  It  went  to  the  Court  of  Appeals.  The  Art 
Union  made  a  brave  fight.  The  ablest  counsel 
pleaded  for  it ;  the  good  it  was  doing  and  the 
pure  motives  of  its  promoters  were  fully  conceded 
by  the  court,  but  there  stood  the  law  and  the 
constitution,  and  the  fact  that  the  scheme  was 
wrought  out  by  an  appeal  to  the  universal  passion 
of  playing  at  games  of  chance  brought  it  under 
the  ban.  As  you  like  to  have  chapter  and  verse, 
I  will  take  the  book  which  contains  the  decision, 


63 


and  read  you  the  very  words,  so  that  you  may  be 
sure  I  am  not  speaking  after  my  own  notions,  but 
according  to  the  settled  law.  Here  is  what  the 
court  say  :  '  The  prohibition  was  not  aimed  at 
the  object  for  which  lotteries  had  been  author 
ized,  but  at  the  particular  mode  of  accomplishing 
the  object.  It  was  founded  on  the  moral  princi 
ple  that  evil  should  not  be  done,  that  good  might 
follow,  and  upon  the  more  cogent,  practical  rea 
son  that  the  evil  consequent  on  this  pernicious 
kind  of  gambling  greatly  overbalanced  in  the 
aggregate  any  good  likely  to  result  from  it.'  " 

"  But,  suppose,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  "  the  money 
contributed  to  the  raffle  goes  to  the  good  object 
directly,  as  to  the  church  in  this  fair,  the  chance 
of  winning  the  prize  being  merely  the  instrument 
or  vehicle  of  an  act  of  benevolence,  does  that 
make  no  difference  ?  " 

"  No,  not  the  least,  so  long  as  the  chance  is 
the  inducement  held  out  to  attract  the  contribu 
tion.  Whoever  holds  it  out  sets  in  motion  the 
evil  principle  which  is  the  root  of  gambling  and 
its  legion  train  of  vices.  To  be  sure,  with  many 
persons  it  may  be  a  matter  of  indifference  whether 
they  win  or  lose,  and  charity  may  be  the  ruling 
motive.  But,  in  reasoning  about  the  matter,  we 
must  take  human  nature  as  it  is,  and  men  and 


women  as  they  are,  and  the  chance  of  winning 
appeals  to  a  universal  passion.  Suppose  two 
men  sit  down  to  play  '  seven-up,'  each  with  fifty 
dollars  in  his  pocket,  and  they  agree  to  stake  all 
their  money  on  the  game,  but  whoever  wins  shall 
give  it  all  to  an  orphan  asylum.  Would  these 
two  be  any  the  less  gamblers  because  the  result 
of  their  game  was  to  benefit  the  orphan  ?  If 
charity  was  their  motive,  they  could  each  give 
fifty  dollars  without  the  play ;  and  if  amusement 
was  their  object,  they  could  play  without  the 
stake.  The  real  zest  of  the  game  is  in  the  haz 
ard." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say,  then,  that  all  games  of 
chance  are  wrong  ?  " 

"  By  no  means.  Chance  is  a  proper  element 
of  calculation  and  determination,  and  using  it  for 
amusement  is  no  more  wrong  than  using  it  in 
drawing  a  jury,  classifying  directors,  or  distribut 
ing  seats  in  the  House  of  Representatives  ;  but 
to  stake  money  on  a  chance,  whether  a  cent  or 
a  fortune,  whether  for  greed  or  benevolence,  is 
wrong,  because  it  is  the  exercise  of  a  natural 
passion  whose  tendency  is  wholly  evil,  and  which, 
therefore,  must  be  evil  in  itself." 

"  But  if  it  is  a  natural  passion  is  it  possible  to 
prevent  its  exercise?" 


65 


"  No,"  said  Mr.  Calendar,  "  it  is  not  possible. 
The  native  love  of  gaming  is  like  the  sea,  with 
its  mighty  under-currents  and  its  resistless  tidal 
forces.  All  that  human  law-makers  can  do  is  to 
build  breakwaters  which  may  restrain  it  within 
some  visible  bounds,  but  which  do  not  stay  the 
incessant  roll  of  the  waves  or  hinder  the  wrecks 
which  strew  the  shores.  But  surely  all  good  men 
and  women  should  join  hands  to  drive  the  pest 
of  pious  gambling  from  the  church  ;  there,  if 
nowhere  else,  things  evil  in  themselves  ought  to 
be  wholly  prohibited." 

"  I  think  I  see  your  distinction,"  said  Mr. 
Limber.  "  It  is  the  stake  that  makes  the  moral 
mischief.  According  to  this,  1  suppose,  card- 
playing  for  amusement  is  innocent,  and  yet  I 
have  never  seen  a  card  in  your  house.  This  is 
rather  aside  from  our  discussion,  but  I  wish  you 
would  tell  me  why  you  exclude  cards  if  you  don't 
think  it  wrong  to  play  cards." 

Mr.  Calendar  smiled  as  he  replied :  "  My  dear 
friend,  you  and  I  might  certainly  sit  down  of  an 
evening  and  take  a  hand  at  whist  with  Mr.  Chan 
cel  or  Dr.  Flatfoot,  just  as  Archdeacon  Paley 
was  fond  of  doing  with  his  clerical  or  lay  com 
panions,  without  breaking  any  law,  human  or 
divine,  and  we  ought  to  brook  no  man's  meddling 


66 


with  our  right  to  do  so.  I  know  that  St.  Chrys- 
ostom  denounced  play  as  an  invention  of  the 
devil,  but  I  believe,  with  Jeremy  Taylor,  that  so 
long  as  the  play  is  not  for  money,  cards  are  as 
innocent  as  push-pin,  and,  if  necessary  to  assert 
mj7  right  to  such  an  opinion,  I  would  play  cards 
on  my  front -porch.  We  should  never  permit 
priest  or  presbyter  to  recast  the  moral  law  or 
override  the  gospel  precepts  with  human  prohibi 
tions.  In  things  not  evil  in  themselves  and  ser 
viceable  for  health,  or  amusement,  or  social  relax 
ation,  the  Bible  rule,  as  I  read  it,  is  temperance 
and  not  abstinence.  And  yet,  if  I  am  satisfied 
by  experience  and  observation  that  cards  are  such 
favorite  instruments  of  vice,  all  the  world  over, 
so  easily  available  for  the  worst  uses  and  so  asso 
ciated  with  every  scene  of  vile  companionship, 
that  I  prefer  not  to  admit  them  to  my  house,  and 
to  choose  other  forms  of  amusement  for  myself 
and  my  children,  I  have  certainly  the  right  to  do 
it,  though  I  have  no  right  to  impose  my  pref 
erence  on  others.  In  short,  I  believe  in  the 
law  of  temperance  and  the  liberty  of  abstinence. 
But  see,  and  there  is  this  plain  difference  between 
card-playing  and  raffling,  and  this  may  bring  us 
back  to  our  subject,  that  one  may  play  at  cards, 
so  long  as  he  does  it  for  amusement  only  and  in 


67 


play-time,  without  infringing  any  law  of  morals  ; 
but  raffling  is  wrong  in  itself,  because  it  stirs  up 
tlie  evil  element  within  us,  the  love  of  gaining  by 
chance.  It  is  not  a  question  of  the  object  of  the 
action,  but  of  the  character  of  the  action,  and,  if 
that  is  bad,  the  action  must  be  bad." 

"  And  yet,  while  the  moral  evil  must  of  course 
have  always  been  the  same,  how  is  it  that  the 
legal  prohibitions  are  so  recent  ?  Haven't  I  heard 
that  Union  College,  and  other  literary  institu 
tions  in  this  State,  were  founded  or  aided  by 
means  of  lotteries,  and  the  newspapers  every  day 
advertise  drawings  in  other  States  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes  !  The  American  Revolution,  a  more 
beneficent  enterprise  even  than  Union  College, 
was  promoted  by  a  lottery,  devised  most  ingen 
iously  by  the  same  immortal  Congress  of  1776, 
which  put  forth  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and,  to-day,  distressed  commonwealths  at  home 
and  abroad  resort  to  the  same  shifts.  In  New 
York  we  have  grown  rich  enough  and  moral 
enough  to  shame  the  venerated  signers  of  '76  or 
our  own  legislators  of  sixty  years  ago,  who  jum 
bled  together  Union  College,  Hamilton  College, 
the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  the  As- 
bury  African  Church,  and  the  Historical  Society, 
in  one  grand  conglomerated  scheme  for  a  lottery 


68 


MRS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 


'  for  the  promotion  of  literature,  and  for  other  pur 
poses  ! '  And  yet,  even  now,  the  spirit  of  '76  is 
not  extinct,  and,  in  practice,  our  people  are  quite 
ready  to  ignore  the  constitution,  as  well  as  the 
moral  law,  and  public  opinion  winks  at  the 
offenders." 

"  What  seems  strangest  to  me,"  said  David 
Limber,  "  is  that  I  cannot  get  my  wife,  who  is, 
as  I  verily  believe,  the  best  woman  alive,  to  ad 
mit  the  bare  idea  that  her  raffle  may  be  wrong." 

"  My  dear  Limber,  that  is  simply  because 
raffling  belongs  to  a  class  of  misdeeds,  the  evil 
of  which  must  be  perceived  by  induction,  and 
not  by  intuition.  The  pure  moral  instinct,  which 
would  be  shocked  at  the  staking  a  dollar  on  the 
green  cloth  of  the  faro-table,  takes  no  wound 
when  the  same  dollar  goes  into  the  lily-white 
hand  of  a  Sunday-school  teacher,  to  swell  her  list 
of  raffle-chances.  In  reality,  the  same  bad  pas 
sion  is  appealed  to  in  either  case,  for  different 
ends,  but,  to  make  this  apparent,  requires  a  pro 
cess  of  reasoning,  and  no  lady  patroness  of  a 
Charity  Fair  will  endure  to  have  her  way  blocked 
by  a  syllogism.  Pure  women,  with  their  wits 
about  them,  are  wonderful  detectives  of  vice,  how 
ever  masked,  but,  under  the  sway  of  feeling, 
they  have  been  arrant  law-breakers  from  Mothei 
Eve  down." 


G9 


There  was  a  pause,  which  Mr.  Calendar  occu 
pied  in  sharpening  a  lead-pencil  to  a  very  fine 
point,  while  his  client's  brows  were  contracted 
under  the  seeming  pressure  of  some  inventive 
idea.  At  last  his  face  lighted  up. 

"  You  said  you  would  read  me  the  law.  I 
suppose  there  is  some  penalty  or  punishment  for 
breaking  it." 

"  I  meant  to  have  given  you  chapter  and  verse 
of  the  law,  just  as  I  did  of  the  constitution.  Here 
it  is  on  page  665  of  the  first  volume  of  the  Re 
vised  Statutes." 

"  Let  me  hear  it,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  as  eagerly 
intent  as  if  the  promised  extract  were  the  most 
entertaining  bit  of  prose  ever  penned,  instead 
of  the  two  dry  sections  of  the  statute  which  are 
the  hinges  whereon  our  story  turns. 

Mr.  Calendar,  thus  urged,  read  as  follows : 

"  '  SECTION  22.  No  person  shall  set  up  or  propose  any 
money,  goods,  chattels  or  things  in  action,  to  be  raffled 
for,  or  to  be  distributed  by  lot  or  chance,  to  any  per 
son  who  shall  have  paid,  or  contracted  to  pay,  any 
valuable  consideration  for  the  chance  of  obtaining  such 
money,  goods,  or  things  in  action.  Any  person  offend 
ing  against  this  provision,  shall  forfeit  three  times  the 
sum  of  money,  or  value  of  the  articles  so  set  up,  to 
gether  with  the  sum  of  ten  dollars,  to  be  recovered  bj 


70  MRS. 

and  in  the  name  of  the  overseers  of  the  poor  of  the 
town  where  the  offense  is  committed. 

"  '  SECTION  23.  No  person  shall  raffle  for  any  sum  of 
money,  goods,  or  things  in  action,  or  become  inter 
ested  in  the  distribution  of  any  money,  goods  or  things 
in  action,  by  lot  or  chance.  Whoever  offends  against, 
this  provision  shall  forfeit  ten  dollars,  to  be  recovered 
as  directed  in  the  preceding  section.'  " 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  now  wholly 
at  ease,  and  with  an  air  of  conscious  mastery. 
"  If  I  understand  it  right,  the  threefold  value  of 
the  thing  set  up,  and  the  ten-dollar  penalty 
against  everybody  who  takes  a  chance,  are  col 
lected  by  the  overseers  of  the  poor." 

"  So  says  the  statute." 

"And  who  sets  the  overseers  in  motion?" 

"  Any  one  who  will  turn  informer  and  make 
a  complaint ;  but  I  am  quite  sure  no  one  in  Spin 
dle  will  think  of  setting  the  dogs  of  the  law  on 
these  benevolent  ladies,  even  if  they  are  wrong 
doers." 

"  Can  the  overseers  refuse  to  act  if  they  are 
called  on  to  enforce  the  law  ?  " 

"  Strictly  speaking,  I  suppose  not.  The  law 
presumes  that  every  public  officer  is  as  prompt 
to  do  his  duty  as  he  is  to  draw  his  pay." 

"  And  the  overseers  can  sue  every  man  and 
woman  and  child  who  has  taken  a  chance  ?  " 


MR.  CALENDAR'S  CODE.  71 

"  Yes,  for  ten  dollars  each." 

"  And  they  can  sue  the  person  putting  up  the 
raffle  for  three  times  the  value  of  the  thing  to  be 
raffled  for,  and  ten  dollars  besides  ?  " 

"  Such  is  the  law." 

"  Now,  Calendar,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  rising, 
"  one  thing  more.  I  want  you  to  make  me  a  bill 
for  all  this  advice,  and  date  it  to-day  and  receipt 
its  for  I  mean  to  pay  it  before  I  go,  and  I  am  go 
ing  now." 

Mr.  Limber  was  evidently  in  earnest,  and  the 
la Nvyer,  seeing  this,  checked  the  refusal  which 
was  rising  to  his  lips,  and  laughingly  said : 

"  For  the  legal  part  of  my  advice  you  may 
pay,  but  not  for  the  moral  part.  When  my  ad 
vice  is  given  from  the  Revised  Statutes  or  from 
my  law-books,  or  from  my  own  experience  or 
brains,  my  clients  ought  to  pay,  but  I  can  hardly 
make  the  Bible  a  basis  for  a  fee." 

"  Perhaps  you  are  not  quite  as  sure  of  your 
position  on  the  Bible  as  you  are  on  the  Revised 
Statutes,  else  why  charge  for  your  law  and  not 
for  your  morals  ?  " 

"  Perhaps,  friend  Limber,  it  is  because  I  pre 
fer  to  give  my  clients  gratuitously  what  I  think 
they  need  the  most !  " 

"  Then  you  don't  always  believe  in  charity 


72 


beginning  at  home  ?  "  said  the  manufacturer,  un 
strapping  his  pocket-book. 

"  Take  out  an  X,"  said  Mr.  Calendar,  while 
he  wrote  and  dated  a  receipt,  according  to  Mr. 
Limber's  request.  That  gentleman  examined  it 
carefully,  placed  it  in  his  pocket-book,  and,  with 
a  warm  hand-shake,  took  his  leave. 

Mr.  Calendar  resumed  his  seat  at  his  desk.  His 
pencil,  although  he  had  not  written  a  word  with 
it  since  its  last  sharpening,  seemed  to  require  re 
newed  attention.  He  devoted  himself  for  some 
time  to  the  process  of  giving  it  the  finest  im 
aginable  point,  with  an  abstracted  energy,  which 
might  have  served  for  the  cross-examination  of 
the  most  unwilling  witness.  All  the  while  he 
was  thinking  rapidly.  At  last  he  pocketed  the 
pencil,  seized  a  sheet  of  note-paper,  and,  taking 
up  the  pen  which  had  just  traced  Mr.  Limber's 
receipt,  he  wrote  as  follows  : 

SPINDLE,  December  10,  18 — . 
Overseers  of  the  Poor  of  the  Town  of  Spindle. 

GENTLEMEN:  I  believe  that  you  rely  upon  me  to  at 
tend  to  any  law  business  which  you  may  have.  I  am 
BO  situated  at  present  that  I  may  not  be  able  to  act 
for  you,  and  should  you  require  any  professional  ser 
vices,  allow  me  to  recommend,  as  a  competent  and 
faithful  attorney,  Mr.  Richard  Folio,  of  this  village. 
He  studied  law  with  me,  and  was  admitted  at  the  last 


73 


General  Term.     He  is  a  prompt  and  efficient  practi- 
titioner.  Yours  truly, 

JOHN  CALENDAK. 

Mr.  Calendar,  having  sealed  this  note,  directed 
it  to  "  Hugh  Boulder,  Esq.,  overseer  of  the  poor," 
and  then  opened  his  window  and  beckoned  to 
his  man-of-all-work  who  was  engaged  in  repair 
ing  a  piece  of  fence  hard  by. 

"  Jacob,"  said  he,  "  did  you  see  Mr.  Limber 
as  he  left  ray  office  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  man,  touching  his  hat ;  "  he 
stopped  and  asked  me  whether  Mr.  Boulder  had 
got  into  his  new  office  yet,  over  the  bank,  and  I 
told  him  he  had.  I  saw  him  moving  in  yesterday." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  Calender  ;  "  I  want  you 
to  take  this  note  to  Mr.  Boulder's  office  and  if  it 
should  reach  there  as  soon  as  Mr.  Limber,  or  be 
fore,  so  much  the  better.  Give  it  to  his  clerk  and 
let  him  deliver  it." 

"  All  right,  sir,"  said  Jacob,  who  was  used  to 
Mr.  Calendar's  explicit  orders,  which  he  prided 
himself  on  executing  to  the  letter,  and  he  hurried 
off  on  his  errand. 

The  lawyer  crossed  the  snow-covered  bit  of 
lawn  between  his  office  and  his  house.  Midway 
he  was  met  by  a  fair-haired,  blue-eyed  girl  qf  sev 
enteen.  . 


"Dear  papa,  I  was  coming  to  find  you.  I 
want  you  to  take  a  little  sleigh-ride  with  me  ;  the 
pony  is  at  the  gate." 

"Bring  me  some  extra  wraps  and  I  will  venture 
with  you,  and,  stop  a  minute,  Lillie  " — as  the  girl 
turned  to  fly  toward  the  house — "here  is  some 
thing  to  spend  at  Mrs.  Limber's  fair." 

He  handed  her  the  ten-dollar  note  for  which 
he  had  just  receipted  to  Mr.  Limber. 

"  Oh,  thank  you,  papa,  ever  so  much" — this 
with  a  kiss  between  every  two  words — u  I  can 
buy  lots  of  things  for  Christmas." 

"  But,  Lillie,  not  a  cent  for  the  raffle." 

"  No,  papa,  I  should  not  have  thought  of  tak 
ing  a  chance  in  it,  even  if  you  had  not  spoken 
about  it." 

"  And  why  not,  Lillie  ?  do  you  think  you  could 
make  out  that  it  is  wrong." 

"  Really,  papa,  I  had  not  thought  anything 
about  the  right  or  wrong  of  it.  I  knew  verv  well 
that  you  disapproved  of  it,  and  that  was  enough 
for  me." 

And  with  another  kiss  she  left  his  side  and 
ran  toward  the  house. 

Her  father  followed  her  with  a  look  of  satis 
fied  affection.  "  After  all,"  he  thought,  "  love  is 
the  fulfillment  of  the  law." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    FAIB. 

THE  fair  was  a  success.  This  was  the  popu 
lar  verdict  at  an  early  hour  in  the  day.  A  light 
snow-fall,  on  a  well-packed  surface,  had  made  the 
sleighing  excellent,  and  it  was  all  the  more  enjoy- 
able  because  of  its  novelty.  The  mercury  stood 
just  below  the  freezing-point,  and  yet  the  sun  was 
shining  as  brightly  as  if  its  sole  purpose  was  to 
contribute  all  its  attractive  forces  in  aid  of  Mrs. 
Limber  and  St.  Parvus. 

Spindle  took  kindly  to  a  holiday  in  advance 
of  Christmas,  and  the  well-filled  tables  in  the 
large,  square  parlors  of  the  Limber  mansion,  with 
their  pretty-faced  and  prettily-attired  attendants, 
did  not  lack  for  customers.  Everything  went  on 
well  and  everybody  was  pleased.  There  were 
no  dead-letters  in  the  post-office ;  the  Sibyls 
gave  out  the  most  flattering  oracles  and  re 
sponses  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  cents  each ; 
the  gypsies  foretold  the  most  auspicious  des- 


76 


tinies ;  the  fair  Rebeccas  dispensed  unceasing 
draughts  of  lemonade  from  wells  in  which  there 
was  only  too  much  water  ;  Punch  and  Judy 
out-Punched  and  out-Judied  themselves  in  ten 
derness  and  tragedy  ;  the  conjurer  exhibited  a 
cabbage-head  in  any  gentleman's  hat;  the  picture- 
gallery,  wisely  ignoring  high  art,  brought  the 
broadest  grins  to  the  faces  of  the  visitors ;  the 
flower-girls  got  the  largest  prices  for  the  small 
est  bouquets;  the  refreshment-tent,  inclosed  in 
a  temporary  wooden  structure,  adjoining  the 
dining-room,  and  heated  with  portable  stoves, 
grew  warmer  as  the  day  advanced,  but  was  al 
ways  chilly  enough  to  provoke  unlimited  de 
mands  for  hot  viands  and  repeated  cups  of  cof 
fee  ;  while  the  decorations  of  evergreens  and 
flowers  and  flags,  and  emblazoned  texts  and  in 
scriptions  inciting  to  a  reckless  benevolence,  con 
spired  to  produce  what  the  worthy  rector  was 
pleased  to  call  a  happy  and  symbolical  blending 
of  nature,  patriotism,  and  piety. 

Conspicuous  on  a  marble  pier-table,  in  front 
of  a  polished  mirror,  stood  Centuria,  in  all  her 
wondrous  finery,  and  from  her  satin-slippered  feet 
depended  the  list  of  subscribers,  duly  numbered 
from  1  to  100.  The  chances,  at  a  dollar  apiece, 
were  taken  quite  freely,  but  to  fill  the  roll  a  little 


THE   FAIE.  11 

active  canvassing  was  required  on  the  part  of  the 
young  ladies  in  charge  of  the  raffle,  which  was 
under  the  general  superintendence  of  Miss  Bessie 
Limber.  Every  new-comer,  especially  if  he  be 
longed  to  the  not  very  numerous  class  of  eligi 
ble  young  gentlemen  who  somewhat  sparingly 
adorned  society  in  Spindle,  was  attacked  with  an 
avidity  which  would  have  been  creditable  to  a 
veteran  life-insurance  agent.  Dialogues  such  as 
this  were  frequent: 

"  Now,  Mr.  Diagonal,  I  declare  you  must  take 
a  chance  in  the  raffle." 

"  Thanks,  Miss  Tarleton,  I  believe  not." 
"  Oh,  but  you  must;  we  shall  never  fill  it  up 
if  you  don't." 

"  Wait  till  I  come  this  way  again.  *' 
"  How  provoking  you  are  !  that  is  just  an  ex 
cuse  to  get  away.     I  shall  lose  you  if  you  go." 
"  I  shall  lose  my  money  if  I  stay." 
"  But  you  will  be  sure  to  get  this  lovely  doll, 
and  you  know  it  will  be  just  the  thing  for  your 
little  niece — what  a  darling  she  is ! " 
"  Oh,  I  never  have  any  luck." 
"  You  never  had  me  to  pick  you  out  a  lucky 
number.     Now,  Mr.  Diagonal,  I  will  never,  never 
speak  to  you  again  as  long  as  you  live  and  breathe, 
if  you  don't ; "  and,  under  the  influence  of  this 
6 


78 


fearful  threat,  down  would  go  Diagonal's  name 
and  his  dollar,  the  helpless  victim  receiving  in  re 
turn  a  sweet  smile  and  a  card  containing  his  num 
ber. 

The  evening  brought  the  gentlemen  in  full 
force,  and  the  ladies  in  fresh  costumes.  Nothing 
so  brilliant  had  been  seen  in  Spindle  for  many  a 
day.  Mrs.  Limber  had  worked  with  a  will,  and 
had  levied  her  contributions  upon  all  available 
sources  of  supply.  Still,  in  her  heart  of  hearts, 
she  wished  the  fair  well  over,  and  the  feeling  that 
she  would  never — no,  never — undertake  another, 
was  beginning  gently  to  steal  over  her  even  in 
the  hour  of  her  triumph.  She  had  planned  a  visit 
to  New  York  before  the  holidays,  and  it  was  ar 
ranged  that  the  whole  family  should  leave  for  the 
city  the  day  following  the  fair.  The  preparations 
for  their  departure,  and  the  arrangements  for  put 
ting  the  house  in  order  during  their  absence,  had 
given  Mrs.  Limber  an  added  share  of  labor,  and 
she  rejoiced  as  the  evening  drew  toward  its  close. 
There  was  to  be  an  auction  at  ten  o'clock,  then 
the  raffle,  and  all  was  to  end  as  near  eleven  as 
possible. 

This  programme  had  been  agreed  to  in  the 
morning,  and  an  additional  motive  for  rigidly  ad 
hering  to  it  was  the  presence  of  the  Spindle 


THE   FAIR.  79 

brass  band,  which  had  volunteered  to  play  at  in 
tervals  during  the  evening,  and  it  was  only  too 
well  known  that  this  tuneful  brotherhood  had 
brass  enough  and  wind  enough  to  play  all  night 
on  the  slightest  encouragement. 

Prompted  by  Mrs.  Limber,  Sam  announced, 
precisely  at  ten  o'clock,  that  an  auction-sale  of 
all  the  unsold  goods  would  forthwith  be  held, 
immediately  after  which  the  drawing  of  the  raffle 
would  commence,  the  whole  number  of  shares 
having  been  subscribed  and  the  books  closed. 
Upon  this,  one  of  those  good-humored,  good-look 
ing  gentlemen,  who  always  happen  to  be  present 
on  such  occasions,  gifted  with  a  ready  flow  of 
wit  and  a  magnetic  voice,  mounted  the  library- 
steps,  and,  after  the  most  approved  manner  of  the 
auction-room,  invited  the  freest  competition,  pre 
mising  that,  as  he  had  been  waiting  all  the  even 
ing  for  just  such  an  opportunity  of  saying  his 
best  things,  the  sale  would  be,  on  his  part,  wholly 
without  reserve. 

With  such  a  brilliant  auctioneer  the  sale  went 
on  swimmingly.  He  made  more  than  the  usual 
complement  of  stale  jokes,  he  dwelt  fondly  on 
some  articles  and  knocked  down  others  before 
they  were  fairly  set  up,  and  bid  in  several  lots  for 
himself,  to  inspire  confidence  in  his  statements  of 


80  MRS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

value,  and  rejected  ten -cent  bids  with  scorn,  and 
finally,  under  the  pressure  of  circumstances,  ac 
cepted  an  advance  of  five  cents,  and  called  upon 
sundry  old  bachelors  to  invest  in  infants'  ward 
robes,  and  recommended  smoking-caps  to  gentle 
men  who  never  smoked,  and  shaving-soaps  to  gen 
tlemen  who  never  shaved,  and  wound  up  by  offer 
ing,  to  the  highest  bidder,  Mr.  Limber's  house 
and  furniture,  including  all  the  family  portraits, 
with  immediate  possession  ;  terms,  cash,  payable 
to  the  auctioneer.  In  the  gaslight  and  under  the 
evergreens  and  in  the  current  of  good  spirits,  all 
this  seemed  very  funny,  and  the  good-humored 
and  good-looking  auctioneer  had  to  stop  now  and 
then  and  take  breath  and  wipe  his  forehead.  At 
last,  having  cleared  the  tables,  he  paused  and  in 
quired  if  there  was  anything  or  anybody  else  he 
could  knock  down. 

Here  some  one  suggested  that  everything 
was  sold,  including  most  of  the  purchasers. 

Then  some  one  else  proposed  that  the  list  of 
subscribers  to  the  rafHe  be  offered  for  sale,  deliv 
erable  after  the  drawing. 

"  All  right,"  said  Sam  Liml^er,  who,  as  treas 
urer,  was  interested  in  swelling  the  receipts  by 
every  possible  penny,  "  set  it  up  and  sell  it  on 
that  condition." 


THE   FAIK.  81 

"  Here  it  goes,  then,"  said  the  auctioneer,  "  this 
unique  and  valuable  list  of  subscribers,  the  only 
one  in  existence,  every  name  warranted  to  have 
been  written  by  the  subscriber  in  person  or  by 
his  duly-authorized  attorney  and  therefore  in 
valuable  to  an  autograph-collector :  what  shall  I 
have  for  it  ?  " 

"  Five  dollars,"  promptly  responded  a  voice 
in  the  corner  of  the  room. 

"  Five  dollars  is  bid,  less  than  one-half  its  val 
ue — will  you  say  six — then  five,  seventy-five — 
five,  fifty — five,  twenty-five — five,  fifteen — five, 
ten — five,  five — are  you  all  done  ? — going,  going, 
last  call,  fair  warning — gone,  at  five  dollars,  to 
— whom  shall  I  say  ?  " 

"  Richard  Folio,"  was  called  out  from  the 
corner. 

"  What  does  all  this  mean  ?  "  said  Mrs.  Lim 
ber,  who,  supposing  that  the  auction  was  ended, 
had  been  giving  her  attention  to  something  else 
for  the  moment. 

"  It  is  Dick  Folio,"  said  Mrs.  Chancel,  who 
was  at  her  elbow;  "he  has  had  the  list  of  sub 
scribers  to  the  raffle  set  up  at  auction  and  has 
bid  it  off  for  five  dollars." 

"He  hasn't  five  dollars  to  his  name,"  said 
Mrs.  Limber.  "  He  was  Mr.  Calendar's  office-boy 


82 


or  clerk,  and  I  don't  believe  he  has  made  a  cent 
since  he  set  up  for  himself." 

"Perhaps  it  is  his  way  of  advertising.  He 
gets  his  name  before  the  very  best  people  in 
Spindle,  in  connection  with  the  respectable  sum 
of  five  dollars,  attracts  attention,  makes  a  sensa 
tion,  and  gets  himself  discussed." 

"  I  should  hardly  think  any  one  would  stop  to 
discuss  Dick  Folio." 

"  But,  my  dear,  we  are  discussing  him." 

"  Well,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  "  he  will  never 
pay  the  five  dollars." 

"  But  he  is  paying  it  now." 

And,  sure  enough,  Mr.  Folio  was,  at  this  very 
moment,  handing  to  Sam,  in  full  view  of  the  two 
ladies,  a  veritable  five-dollar  bill  of  the  unim 
peachable  issue  of  the  First  National  Bank  of 
Spindle. 

"  Did  you  ever  1 "  exclaimed  Mrs.  Limber. 
She  could  not  tell  why,  but  she  felt  a  shiver  of 
uneasiness,  as  she  saw  the  transaction  closed,  to 
the  evident  satisfaction  of  the  purchaser. 

There  was  no  time  for  further  remark  on  this 
episode,  as  the  drawing  of  the  raffle  was  about  to 
begin. 

To  insure  absolute  fairness  in  this  important 
proceeding,  two  highly  -  respectable  gentlemen 


THE   FATE.  83 

carefully  examined  the  counters,  on  which  were 
inscribed  the  numbers,  from  1  to  100,  and  then 
deposited  them  in  the  bottom  of  a  tall,  china 
vase,  after  duly  inspecting  it  to  ascertain  that  it 
was  entirely  empty.  The  counters  were  then 
well  shaken  up  by  the  same  impartial  hands. 
A  very  young  lady,  in  white  muslin,  with  bare 
arms,  was  then  blindfolded,  and,  after  having 
been  turned  round  several  times,  to  her  utter 
confusion,  was  led  to  the  vase,  into  which  she 
was  directed  to  plunge  her  arm  five  successive 
times,  and  each  time  to  bring  up  from  its  depths 
a  single  counter,  the  fifth  to  be  the  winning  num 
ber.  This  fivefold  trial  of  fortune  was  in  order 
to  prolong  the  excitement  of  the  drawing,  and 
to  give  the  additional  zest  of  showing  how  tan 
talizing,  as  well  as  capricious,  the  blind  and  fickle 
goddess  may  be. 

The  little  bare  arm  went  deftly  down  into  the 
vase,  and  brought  up  the  first  counter.  The 
brace  of  respectable  gentlemen  examined  it,  and 
one  of  them  called  out  the  number,  and  then  the 
good-humored  and  good-looking  auctioneer  with 
the  magnetic  voice  read  from  the  list  the  name 
of  the  owner.  This  happened  to  be  one  of  the 
belles  of  Spindle,  who  thereupon  received  a  round 
of  condoling  applause.  The  second  name  was 


84  MRS.  LIMBER'S  BAFFLE. 

that  of  an  elderly  maiden  lady,  who  gave  a  little 
scream  when  her  name  was  called,  which  set 
everybody  laughing,  to  her  great  displeasure,  as 
the  one  thing  she  never  could  put  up  with,  under 
any  circumstances,  was  to  be  laughed  at.  There 
was  no  time  for  explanation  or  apology,  as  the 
next  name  was  waited  for  with  an  impatience 
which  increased  as  the  drawing  progressed.  The 
third  name  was  that  of  a  young  gentleman  who 
declared  that  his  chance  was  guaranteed  by  the 
young  lady  who  took  his  money,  so  that  he  didn't 
care  whether  he  won  or  lost.  The  fourth  was 
none  other  than  the  good-humore'd  and  good- 
looking  auctioneer  himself.  This  made  a  hub 
bub  of  laughter  and  applause,  during  which  he 
pretended  to  faint,  and  was  brought  to  by  the 
aid  of  the  parlor-bellows. 

This  performance  was  very  exciting,  and  even 
Mr.  Limber,  who  was  watching  it  from  a  remote 
corner,  caught  something  of  the  infection  and  felt 
a  genuine  thrill  of  expectancy  as  the  little  bare 
arm  went  down  for  the  fifth  time,  and,  in  the  pro 
found  silence,  drew  from  the  vase  the  lucky  num 
ber.  The  two  respectable  gentlemen  examined 
it,  and  then  one  of  them  read  it  aloud,  "  Sixty- 
three"  The  good-humored  and  good-looking 
auctioneer  glanced  at  the  list  and  looked  up  with 


THE   FAIK.  85 

a  puzzled  air.  The  pause  heightened  the  sus 
pense.  He  seemed  for  the  first  time  a  trifle  dis 
concerted,  but  the  writing  was  plain  and  so  was 
his  duty,  and  the  magnetic  voice  read  "  Number 
/Sixty-three — Bridget  Looney  !  " 

There  was  dead  silence,  then  a  titter  and  a 
sudden  disappearance  of  a  little  group  of  house 
maids,  who  had  slyly  gathered  at  the  door  leading 
from  the  butler's  pantry  into  the  dining-room — 
and  then  a  general  murmer,  as  if  something  had 
gone  wrong  and  a  universal  grievance  had  been 
distributed  among  the  guests.  The  idea  that  this 
name,  so  wholly  unknown  to  fame  and  to  the 
select  circles  of  Spindle,  was  the  alias  of  some 
lucky  subscriber,  who  had  sailed  into  success 
under  false  colors,  was  freely  suggested,  while  the 
imputation  that  Mrs.  Limber  would  permit  any 
one  but  her  guests  to  compete  in  the  raffle  was 
indignantly  rejected.  And  yet  it  was  a  mystery 
which  no  one  volunteered  to  solve.  Evidently 
the  good-looking  auctioneer,  with  all  his  humor, 
had  no  joke  in  reserve  for  such  an  emergency  as 
this,  and  he  looked  a  little  foolish.  Mrs.  Lim 
ber's  quick  eye  had  turned  at  once  on  Bessie, 
whose  face  wore  the  deep  crimson  of  detected 
guilt.  Sam  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  truth  and, 
with  ra^-e  presence  of  mind,  signaled  the  band. 


86 


which  immediately  struck  up  "Homo,  Sweet 
Home,"  a  loud  hint  for  leave-taking. 

"  For  once,"  thought  Sam,  "  a  brass  band  is  a 
blessing." 

Mrs.  Limber,  whose  forebodings  were  only 
too  clearly  defined,  drew  Bessie  into  the  bay- 
window  of  the  library. 

"  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  ?  How  in  the 
world  did  that  odious  Bridget's  name  get  on  the 
list  ?  We  are  all  disgraced !  " 

"  Dear  mamma,  it  is  my  fault,  but  I  really 
could  not  help  it.  I  will  tell  you  how  it  was. 
Bridget  came  to  me  the  night  she  left  us.  I  did 
not  know  until  then  that  she  was  to  be  married, 
and  she  reminded  me  that  I  had  promised  her, 
ever  so  long  ago,  and  I  had,  that  whenever  she 
was  married  I  would  give  her  a  wedding  present. 
'  Now,  Miss  Bessie,'  said  she,  '  it  is  only  a  little 
trifling  thing  I  want  you  to  do  for  me ;  your  pa 
and  ma  have  been  good  to  me,  and  yourself,  and 
it's  no  present  I'm  asking.'  I  told  her,  without 
thinking,  that  I  would  do  anything  I  could  for 
her,  and  she  kept  saying,  l  Oh,  it's  easy  enough,' 
and  so  I  pretty  much  promised  her,  just  as  we  do 
sometimes,  you  know,  with  the  children  when 
they  tease.  '  But  what  is  it,  Bridget  ?  '  I  asked 
her  over  and  over.  Then,  when  she  had  got  the 


THE    FAIR.  87 

promise,  she  said :  *  It  is  just  nothing  at  all  but 
a  chance  in  your  ma's  lottery.'  Of  course,  then, 
I  told  her  she  must  not  call  it  a  lottery,  and  I 
tried  to  put  her  off,  and  proposed  that  I  would 
take  an  extra  share  in  the  raffle,  and  pay  for  it, 
and  if  I  drew  the  prize  it  should  be  hers ;  but, 
6  Oh,  no,  miss,  that  wouldn't  do  at  all,'  it  must 
be  her  own  money  that  pays,  and  her  own  name 
and  number,  or  it  wouldn't  be  '  no  good.'  Then 
I  said,  *  Nonsense,  Bridget,  why  waste  your  mon 
ey  just  when  you  want  it  ? '  '  Never  you  fret 
about  my  money,  Miss  Bessie,'  said  she,  '  but  if 
you  will  break  your  word  to  a  poor  girl,  and  you 
a  fine  lady,  it's  easier  breaking  than  keeping.' 
— Now,  mamma,  what  could  I  do  ?  What  I  did 
was  this  :  '  Bridget,'  said  I,  '  you  are  a  silly  goose, 
but  pick  out  your  number.'  '  The  number  is 
picked  already,'  said  she ;  £  it's  Pat's  lucky  num 
ber,  and  a  happy  wife  it  will  be  making  me,  and 
it's  number  63,  it  is.'  I  knew  there  was  only 
one  chance  in  a  hundred  of  her  winning,  so  I 
kept  it  to  myself,  and  said  nothing  to  you  or  to 
any  one  else." 

"  But  I  did  not  see  her  name  on  the  list.  I 
looked  over  it  only  fifteen  minutes  before  the 
drawing." 

"  No.     I  just  wrote  '  taken,'  opposite  the  num- 


88 


her,  and,  a  few  minutes  before  they  put  the  coun 
ters  in  the  vase,  I  wrote  the  name,  *  Bridget 
Looney,'  in  the  list.  I  never  supposed  that  any 
one  would  see  it  or  hear  of  it,  and  I  don't  know 
now  what  she  meant  by  its  being  Pat's  lucky 
number  and  making  her  a  happy  wife.  She  just 
threw  the  dollar  in  my  lap  and  kissed  my  cheek, 
and  ran  off.  Dear  mamma,  are  we  all  rained? 
I  wish  I  had  never  heard  of  the  fair,  nor  the 
raffle." 

Hysterics  were  imminent.  Mrs.  Limber  was 
frightened  into  comparative  self-possession,  and 
she  said  as  quietly  and  as  assuringly  as  she  could : 

"  Never  mind,  Bessie,  it  is  my  fault  for  not 
telling  you  what  I  knew,  and  putting  you  on  your 
guard.  Bridget  has  married  a  bad  man,  a  gam 
bler  who  deals  in  lottery -tickets  and  everything 
that  is  wicked,  and  I  told  her  plainly  she  was 
ruined  and  lost  if  she  married  him,  and  this  is 
her  revenge  and  his." 

"  They  would  have  had  no  revenge,  mamma, 
if  number  63  had  not  drawn  the  doll." 

"But  number  63  has  drawn  it,"  said  Mrs. 
Limber.  "  No  matter,  darling ;  here  comes  Mrs. 
Chancel,  and  we  must  not  wince  even  if  we  are 
hurt.  She  knew  Bridget,  but  she  never  heard 
of  her  by  her  husband's  name,  and  does  not  mis- 


THE    FAIR.  89 

trust  that  it  is  she  who  has  drawn  the  French 
doll.  Run  and  take  a  breath  of  fresh  air  and 
drink  a  glass  of  water,  but  not  too  cold,  for  your 
blood  is  all  in  your  face." 

"  Pray,  my  dear  Mrs.  Limber,"  said  Mrs.  Chan 
cel,  in  her  biting  little  way,  "  how  long  have  you 
known  the  Looneys,  and  who  is  the  fortunate 
Miss  Bridget  who  walks  off  with  Centuria,  as 
Sam  calls  her?" 

"  She  seems  to  be  a  person  who  has  paid  her 
money,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  determined  not  to  be 
drawn  into  any  explanations,  arid  putting  the  best 
face  she  could  on  the  catastrophe. 

"Oh!  it's  a  genuine  she,  then?  I  thought 
that  perhaps  it  might  be  some  incognita  who  had 
turned  Biddy  for  to-night  and  stooped  to  conquer. 
Is  she  a  princess  of  Fenia  ?  " 

"  Perhaps  she  is,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  evidently 
disconcerted  and  without  an  arrow  in  her  quiver. 

"  You  look  so  very,  very  tired,"  said  Mrs. 
Chancel,  compassionately,  "  we  ought  all  of  us 
to  go  ;  and  Mr.  Chancel  is  waiting  in  the  cold  for 
me.  He  was  having  a  good  laugh  over  what  he 
was  sure  must  have  been  a  fictitious  or  symbolical 
Bridget,  but  I  must  go  and  stop  it.  What  a  pity  ! 
a  spoiled  joke  is  so  very  disagreeable." 

Fortunately,  the  leave-takings  of  other  and 


90  MKS.  LIMBER'S  BAFFLE. 

less  satirical  guests  interposed  to  cut  Mrs.  Chan 
cel  short,  and  their  congratulations  and  good 
wishes  went  far  toward  restoring  Mrs.  Limber's 
equanimity.  The  necessity  of  giving  her  final 
directions  for  the  night  and  of  seeing  that  some 
order  was  brought  out  of  the  chaos  of  the  fair, 
was  a  more  effectual  restorative,  and  she  strove 
to  dismiss,  for  the  present  at  least,  the  disagree 
able  result  of  the  raffle. 

"  Sam,  my  dear  boy,"  said  she,  "  take  the  doll 
and  put  it  with  all  its  belongings  in  one  of  those 
large  paper  boxes  and  leave  it  on  the  top  shelf 
of  my  cedar  closet ;  lock  the  door  and  bring  me 
the  key.  I  shall  be  in  my  dressing-room.  Every 
thing  else  here  is  to  be  placed  in  the  refreshment- 
room  and  disposed  of  to-morrow.  I  have  sent 
Bessie  to  bed,  and  your  father  went  up-stairs  half 
an  hour  ago." 

"  I  wonder  what  possessed  Dick  Folio  to  buy 
that  subscription-list  ?  "  said  Sam,  as  he  set  about 
obeying  his  mother's  instructions.  "  Dick  is 
pretty  sharp,  and  five-dollar  bills  do  not  grow  on 
every  bush,  at  least  not  in  a  young  lawyer's 
shrubbery." 

When  Sam  brought  the  key  to  his  mother, 
she  was  closing  the  blinds  of  her  window,  accord 
ing  to  her  custom,  and  pausing  as  she  did  so  for 


THE    FAIR.  91 

a  glance  into  the  cold,  dark  night.  Sam  looked 
out  with  her  upon  the  quiet  village. 

"  What  is  that  bright  light  in  the  tall  window 
down  there?"  asked  his  mother.  "It  is  after 
half-past  twelve,  and  everybody  who  has  not  had 
a  fair  in  the  house  ought  to  be  sound  asleep." 

"  That,"  said  Sam,  after  a  moment's  observa 
tion,  "  is  the  printing-office  of  the  Spindle  Free 
booter.  They  are  doing  night-work ;  very  likely 
setting  up  some  libel  against  an  honest  man 
who  is  in  bed  and  asleep.  Slander  is  the  chief 
resource  of  the  press,  nowadays." 

"That  is  very  true,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  ac 
quiescing  easily  in  Sam's  off-hand,  midnight  de 
preciation  of  the  greatest  of  the  powers  that  be ; 
and  she  added  with  a  sigh,  as  she  closed  the 
blinds  and  fastened  her  window,  "  Dear  me !  what 
shall  we  do  with  these  newspapers  ?  " 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  DAY  AFTER  THE  FAIR. 

IN  spite  of  the  fatigues  and  excitements  of 
the  fair,  the  Limber  family  assembled  in  full 
force  at  the  breakfast-table  the  next  morning. 
Mrs.  Limber  and  Bessie  were  unusually  quiet, 
and  their  appetites  were  evidently  below  the  or 
dinary  standard.  Sam  was  in  unabated  spirits, 
and  Mr.  Limber,  according  to  his  wont,  serenely 
cheerful. 

The  door-bell  rang. 

"  That,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  "  is  the  man  from 
Delf  s.  He  was  to  come  early  this  morning  to 
take  away  the  extra  china." 

The  man  from  Delf's  proved  to  be  a  boy  from 
somewhere  else. 

"  He  is  in  the  hall,"  said  the  waiting-maid, 
"  and  wants  to  see  Mr.  Limber  very  particular." 

"  Let  him  come  in  here,"  said  Mr.  Limber. 

"  And  see  that  he  wipes  his  feet  on  the  out 
side  door-mat,  and  leaves  his  cap  in  the  hall," 


THE  DAT  AFTER  THE  FAIR.        93 

said  Mrs.  Limber.  "  But  why  not  let  him  wait, 
husband  ? — you  never  know  what  kind  of  places 
these  boys  come  out  of." 

But  the  boy  was  already  at  the  dining-room 
door.  It  was  plain  enough  that  the  place  he  had 
come  out  of  was  a  lawyer's  office.  He  had  in  his 
hands  a  big  bundle  of  papers,  unmistakably  legal, 
tied  with  red  tape,  and  arranged  with  evident 
precision ;  and  he  was  equipped  with  a  memo 
randum-book  and  a  pencil.  He  was  a  chunky 
boy,  rubicund  of  hair  and  face,  somewhat  belliger 
ent  in  his  general  aspect,  and  looked  as  though 
he  might  have  been,  as  perhaps  he  was,  the  line 
al  descendant  of  several  generations  of  deputy- 
sheriffs.  A  view  of  his  side-pocket  disclosed  the 
fact  that  he  had  been  engaged  in  eating  a  large 
apple,  upon  which  he  had  temporarily  staid  pro 
ceedings  in  order  to  attend  to  the  business  in 
hand. 

"  David  Limber,  Martha  Limber,  Samuel  Lim 
ber,  Bessie  Limber,"  said  the  boy,  as  if  he  were 
calling  the  roll  of  the  entire  family,  "  I  have  got 
summonses  and  complaints  for  all  of  you,"  and 
he  evidently  knew  by  sight  the  respective  per 
sons  whose  names  he  had  pronounced,  for  he  pro 
ceeded,  in  the  most  deliberate  manner,  to  draw 
certain  papers  from  his  bundle  and  to  deliver  one 
V 


to  Mr.  Limber  and  another  to  Sam,  who  was  seat 
ed  at  his  father's  left  hand.  He  then  crossed,  as 
formally  as  though  he  were  following  a  stage  di 
rection,  to  Mr.  Limber's  right,  and,  after  a  delib 
erate  survey  of  Bessie,  thrust  a  third  paper  at 
her,  which  he  put  into  her  hand  without  any  co 
operation  on  her  part,  very  much  as  packages  of 
prize-candy  and  other  light  wares  are  devolved 
on  unwilling  recipients  in  railway-cars. 

"  I  would  like  to  know,"  said  the  aggressive 
boy,  as  the  paper  fell  on  Bessie's  lap,  "  whether 
you  are  a  minor,  under  the  age  of  fourteen 
years  ?  " 

"  What  an  impudent  boy  1 "  said  Bessie,  turn 
ing  to  her  mother. 

"  Oh,  very  well ;  if  you  decline  to  answer,  I 
will  make  sure,  and  serve  a  copy  on  your  father, 
mother,  or  guardian.  I've  got  plenty  of  them." 

"  Oh,  I  am  over  fourteen  —  seventeen  last 
March,"  cried  Bessie,  fearing  lest  she  had  in 
volved  the  family  in  some  new  trouble  by  not 
telling  the  whole  truth  instantly,  and  yet  en 
tirely  unable  to  comprehend  the  behavior  of  her 
strange  interlocutor. 

Mrs.  Limber  had  made  up  her  mind  at  an  early 
stage  of  this  proceeding  that  it  was  in  some  way 
connected  with  the  taking  of  the  census,  and  had 


THE  DAT  AFTER  THE  FATE.        95 

rather  enjoyed  Bessie's  evident  alarm  ;  but  there 
was  something  in  the  tone  and  manner  of  this 
domineering  boy  which  inspired  her  with  a  vague 
dread,  as  he  left  Bessie  after  making  a  careful 
note  in  his  memorandum-book,  and  invaded  the 
side  of  the  table  sacred  to  the  breakfast-tray  and 
the  coffee-urn,  and  thrust  a  fourth  paper  in  the 
direction  of  her  own  proper  person.  In  her  re 
peated  experiences  of  census-takers,  she  had  al 
ways  found  them,  though  of  an  inquiring  turn  of 
mind,  very  affable  in  their  manners  and  disposed 
to  deal  gently  with  the  subjects  of  their  in 
quisition  so  long  as  they  were  liberally  plied 
with  family  statistics.  But  this  disagreeable 
youth  had  a  malevolent  look  which  roused  all  her 
antipathies  and  apprehensions ;  she  pushed  back 
her  chair,  and,  spreading  out  her  napkin,  as  if  to 
guard  against  the  danger  of  personal  contact, 
gave  him  what  she  was  in  the  habit  of  describing 
as  "  one  of  her  looks."  All  of  no  avail ;  the  un- 
terrified  boy  would  have  served  process  on  Medu 
sa  herself.  Mrs.  Limber  receded  an  inch  farther. 
"  How  dare  you  intrude  into  a  gentleman's  house 
and  behave  in  this  indecent  way  ?  I  will  have 
none  of  your  papers,"  said  she,  in  her  most  for 
bidding  tone  ;  "  you  must  leave  the  room  and  the 
house  instantly. — Jane,  run  to  the  stable  and  call 


96 


Thomas. — Mr.  Limber,  I  am  amazed  that  you  al 
low  such  impudence  to  go  on  ;  this  boy  ought  to 
be  punished." 

"  I've  delivered  a  copy  of  the  summons  and 
complaint  to  you  personally  and  left  it  with  you," 
said  the  boy,  deliberately,  as  he  jerked  the  paper 
on  Mrs.  Limber's  napkin  ;  "and  you  are  known 
to  me  to  be  the  person  named  therein  as  the  de 
fendant,  Martha  Limber,  and  that's  good  service 
whether  you  choose  to  take  hold  of  the  paper  or 
not;  that's  all,  yoif  needn't  call  Thomas,  he  isn't 
a  defendant.  Good-morning,"  and  the  boy  depart 
ed,  taking  an  enormous  bite  of  the  apple  as  he 
left. 

Mrs.  Limber  sat  in  silence,  with  her  chair  still 
pushed  back  from  the  table,  the  rejected  docu 
ment  at  her  feet,  whither  the  law  of  gravitation, 
to  which  even  the  processes  of  justices'  courts 
are  subject,  had  taken  it,  under  the  impulse  of  a 
little  shake  of  the  napkin  on  which  it  had  lodged. 
So  near  an  approach  to  a  personal  insult  she  had 
never  experienced  as  at  the  hands  of  this  shame 
less  boy,  and  she  was  speechless  under  the  shock. 

"  I  declare,"  said  Sam,  who  all  this  time  had 
been  busily  engaged  in  reading  the  document 
handed  to  him,  and  also  the  one  which  had  been 
served  on  his  father — "  I  declare  this  is  the  coolest 


THE  DAY  AFTER  THE  FAIR.        97 

thing  yet !  There  never  was  anything  like  it  in 
this  world." 

"  Sam,"  said  Bessie,  "  what  is  it  ?  Is  it  any 
thing  dreadful  ?  " 

"  Dreadful  ?  I  guess  you  will  think  so  1  It 
is  all  about  the  raffle." 

"  Then,  don't  tell  me  anything  more — the 
very  thought  of  that  raffle  is  perfectly  awful. 
But  I  suppose  I  must.  Do  go  on,  Sam,  tell  me 
all,  tell  me  the  very  worst — oh,  why  do  you  keep 
me  in  this  fearful  suspense  ?  " 

"  It  is  a  suit  at  law,"  said  Sam ;  "  the  over 
seers  of  the  poor  of  the  town  of  Spindle  have  sued 
papa  and  mamma  in  Justice  Hazey's  court  for 
three  hundred  and  ten  dollars.  Just  hear  this, 
will  you — it  is  all  printed :  it  says  that  the  de 
fendants — that's  papa  and  mamma — '  did,  hereto 
fore,  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  December  in  this 
present  year ' — that's  short  for  yesterday,  you 
see — '  at  the  village  of  Spindle,  in  the  town  of 
Spindle,  set  up  and  propose  a  certain  chattel,  to 
wit ' — oh,  do  listen  to  this  ! — '  an  image  or  effigy 
of  the  female,  human  form,  composed,  as  to  the 
head  and  neck  thereof,  of  wax,  and  as  to  the  rest, 
residue,  and  remainder  thereof,  of  muslin  stuifed 
with  bran,  sawdust,  or  other  minute  particles  ' — 
there's  a  legal  description  of  a  doll  for  you — '  to 


98 


be  raffled  for  to  certain  persons  who  then  and 
there  respectively  paid,  or  contracted  to  pay,  the 
sum  of  one  dollar  for  the  chance  of  obtaining  the 
same,  there  being  in  all  one  hundred  chances,  and 
the  value  of  the  said  chattel  so  set  up  being  then 
and  there  one  hundred  dollars ' — that's  a  whop 
per,"  said  Sam — "  '  contrary  to  the  provisions  of 
the  Revised  Statutes  of  this  State ;  wherefore,  the 
said  plaintiffs  ' — that's  the  overseers  of  the  poor," 
added  Sam — "  '  demand  judgment  against  the  said 
defendants  ' — that's  papa  and  mamma,  you  know 
— '  for  the  sum  of  three  hundred  dollars,  being 
three  times  the  value  of  the  article  so  set  up  ' — 
I  should  think  it  was — 4  together  with  the  further 
sum  of  ten  dollars,  making  in  all  three  hundred 
and  ten  dollars  and  the  costs  of  this  action ' — hol 
loa  !  Richard  Folio,  plaintiff's  attorney.'  " 

"  So,  Dick  Folio  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  this," 
said  Mrs.  Limber.  How  utterly  contemptible ! — 
Of  course,  husband,  you  will  take  no  notice  of 
it." 

"  But  dear  mamma,"  interposed  Bessie,  "  why 
did  he  make  Sam  and  me  take  these  horrid  pa 
pers?" 

"  Wait  a  minute,"  said  Sam ;  "  that's  only 
one  suit.  Now  here  is  another  against  me,  and 
if  your  paper  is  like  mine  Bessie,  I  guess  there  is 


THE  DAT  AFTER  THE  FAIR.         99 

another  against  you.  Let  me  read  :  'The  over 
seers  of  the  poor  complain  of  the  defendant ' — 
that's  me  this  time — '  and  show  that  heretofore  ' 
— just  the  same  as  in  papa's — c  he  raffled  for  a  cer 
tain  chattel, to  wit' — and  then  it  goes  on  and  de 
scribes  Centuria,  just  the  same,  bran,  sawdust, 
and  all — *  wherefore  they  demand  judgment  for 
ten  dollars  and  costs — Richard  Folio,  plaintiff's 
attorney.'  Now,  Bess,  yours  is  identically  the 
same,  and  they  are  after  you  for  ten  dollars." 

"  But  I  have  not  got  ten  dollars,"  said  Bessie. 
"  I  spent  all  my  allowance  at  the  fair." 

"  Then  you  will  have  to  go  to  jail,"  said  Sam, 
remorselessly. 

"  Sister  Bessie  sha'n't  go  to  jail,"  shrieked 
little  David  Limber,  aged  six,  suddenly  aroused 
from  his  oatmeal-porridge  to  a  sense  of  the  ca 
lamity  impending  over  the  family,  and  giving  a 
sympathetic  howl,  and  exhibiting  incipient  symp 
toms  of  strangulation.  His  mother  rushed  to  his 
rescue,  and  jerking  his  arms  suddenly  over  his 
head — a  process  by  which  she  had  saved  many 
infantile  lives,  and  repeatedly  entitled  herself  to 
the  medal  of  the  Humane  Society — averted  the 
catastrophe.  Sam  was  duly  reproved  for  his 
heartless  remark,  and  after  a  penitent  disclaimer 
on  his  part  and  a  positive  assertion  that  BfeftAU* 


100  MRS.  LBIBEE'S  RAFFLE. 

should  not  go  to  jail,  David  was  consoled  and  re 
sumed  his  porridge,  while  his  elder  brother  pur 
sued  his  researches  into  the  papers. 

"  This  thing  is  all  printed,"  said  Sam,  "  ex 
cepting  the  names,  and  they  are  written  in ;  my 
name  is  written  in  mine,  and  your  name  in  yours. 
I  do  believe  they  have  gone  and  sued  every  one 
of  the  whole  hundred  subscribers — just  think  of 
that !  " 

"  That  is  why  Dick  Folio  wanted  the  sub 
scription-list,"  said  Bessie,  with  a  sudden  access 
of  light.  "  It  was  to  get  the  names  to  write  in 
these  frightful  summonses,  or  whatever  they  are 
called." 

"  No  wonder  he  was  willing  to  bid  five  dol 
lars  for  it,"  said  Sam;  "  why,  he  has  got  a  hundred 
suits  for  ten  dollars  apiece,  besides  this  big  one 
against  papa  and  mamma  for  three  hundred  and 
ten  dollars,  that  makes  a  hundred  and  one  suits 
in  one  day. — And  now,  mamma,"  said  Sam,  still 
pushing  his  discoveries,  "  don't  you  recollect  we 
saw  the  Freebooter  office  lighted  up  last  night, 
and  wondered  what  they  were  doing  there  ?  It 
is  plain  as  day,  now,  that  they  were  busy  print 
ing  off  these  very  papers,  and  Dick  Folio  had 
only  to  write  the  names  in  from  the  list.  Just 
think  of  that  boy  going  all  over  Spindle  this 


THE  BAY  AFTER  THE  FATE.       101 

morning,  eating  apples  and  serving  everybody 
with  these  papers  !  It  was  mighty  smart  in  Dick 
Folio,  though." 

Mrs.  Limber  was  in  a  white  heat.  The  truth 
had  slowly  dawned  upon  her.  "  David,"  said 
she,  "do  you  really  imagine  that  all  the  people 
who  took  shares  in  the  raffle  are  sued  for  ten 
dollars  a  piece  by  this  impertinent  Dick  Folio  ?  " 

"  So  it  would  seem,  my  dear,"  said  Mr.  Lim 
ber,  who  was  quietly  plodding  through  his  break 
fast. 

"It  is  too  disgraceful  to  think  of,"  said  Mrs. 
Limber.  "You  must  put  a  stop  to  it  immedi 
ately.  Is  there  no  way  of  having  him  arrested  ? 
And  that  boy  too  ?  " 

"  Really,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  "  it  looks  more  like 
his  having  us  arrested." 

"  And  to  think,"  continued  Mrs.  Limber,  "  that 
this  same  Richard  Folio  was  once  a  boy  in  my 
Sunday-school  class,  when  he  was  no  bigger  than 
our  Davy.  Of  course,  he  can  never,  never  cross 
the  threshold  of  this  house  again." 

"  It  is  thirteen  hundred  and  ten  dollars,  all 
told,"  said  Sam,  still  absorbed  in  the  legal  docu~ 
ments  on  which  he  was  making  marginal  notes 
and  calculations ;  "  and  costs  besides  in  one  hun 
dred  and  one  suits.  Now  costs  are  something 


TJiri7BE3ITT| 


03T 


102 


that  you  can't  calculate.  There  is  no  telling 
what  they  may  run  up  to." 

"Thirteen  hundred  and  ten  dollars,"  said 
Bessie,  despairingly,  "is  more  than  the  whole 
profits  of  the  fair." 

"  There  is  one  consolation,"  said  Sam ;  "  I  paid 
over  all  the  cash,  last  night,  to  Mr.  Mix,  the  treas 
urer,  and  they  cannot  stop  that :  it  was  twelve 
hundred  and  sixteen  dollars  and  one  cent.  I  have 
got  his  receipt  for  it." 

"  What  on  earth  have  the  overseers  of  the 
poor  got  to  do  with  all  this  ? "  demanded  Mrs. 
Limber ;  "  do  they  oversee  everybody,  and  do 
you  suppose  that  Dick  Folio  has  any  right  to 
bring  them  into  his  impudent  schemes  ?  " 

"  I  believe,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  "  by  the  law 
any  one  who  sets  up  a  thing  at  a  raffle  is  liable 
to  pay  a  penalty  to  the  overseers  of  the  poor  of 
three  times  its  value  and  ten  dollars  besides,  just 
as  Sam  has  read  from  the  paper,  and  everybody 
who  takes  a  chance  in  the  raffle  is  liable  to  pay  a 
penalty  of  ten  dollars." 

"  What  an  infamous  law ! "  said  Mrs.  Limber, 
"  and  then  to  start  it  up  and  set  it  agoing,  be- 
tweeen  night  and  morning,  against  respectable 
people  like  us,  while  thieves,  and  drunkards,  and 
murderers,  and  burglars,  go  scot-free  !  Who  in 


THE  DAY  AFTER  THE  FATE.       103 

the  world  would  ever  suspect  that  there  were 
any  such  penalties  kept  concealed  like  traps  to 
be  sprung  upon  honest  people  in  their  own 
houses,  and  at  the  breakfast-table,  and  by  boys 
too  ?  " 

"  My  dear,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  "  every  one  is 
supposed  to  know  the  law,  and  I  told  you  long 
ago  that  I  believed  the  raffle  was  against  the  law, 
and  I  warned  you  to  take  care,  but  you  went  on, 
and  now  it  appears  that  the  law  is  going  to  be 
enforced  against  us.  Respectable  people  are  just 
as  good  defendants  as  thieves  or  drunkards,  and 
at  all  events  those  who  dance  must  pay  the 
piper.  That's  good  law." 

"  But,  papa,"  interposed  Bessie,  "  why  should 
they  sue  you,  as  well  as  mamma  and  us  ?  We 
had  the  raffle,  and  not  you.  I  thought  married 
women  had  everything  separate  nowadays.  I 
mean  property,  and  debts,  and  all  that." 

"  Yes,  Bessie,  but  a  husband  still  has  the 
privilege  of  paying  for  his  wife's  wrongful  acts 
when  they  are  done  in  his  presence.  I  learned 
that  when  I  was  on  the  jury,  last  winter.  If  a 
married  lady  should,  of  her  own  sweet  will,  but 
in  presence  of  her  husband,  bite  off  the  nose  of 
another  lady,  the  law  would  presume  that  the 
biting  was  his  act,  and  not  his  wife's,  and  he,  and 


104  MES. 

not  she,  would  have  to  pay  the  market  value  of 
the  lost  nose.  That's  what  they  call  the  common 
law,  I  believe." 

"  It  seems  very  uncommon  to  me,"  said  Bes 
sie,  "  but  I  suppose  I  don't  know  anything  about 
it ;  but,  dear  papa,  another  thing,"  and  here  she 
brightened  suddenly,  "  how  can  they  sue  me  ?  I 
am  only  an  infant,  Sam  keeps  telling  me,  and 
he  says  I  am  incapable  of  making  a  con 
tract." 

"So  you  are,"  said  Sam,  "but  I  never  said 
you  were  incapable  of  committing  a  tort." 

"  What  in  the  world  is  a  tort  ?  " 

"A  tort,"  said  Sam,  solemnly,  u  is  any  naughti 
ness  for  which  you  can  be  made  to  pay  damages. 
If  you  were  to  hire  Jack  Rumble's  pony  and 
phaeton,  to  go  from  here  to  Shuttleville,  he  could 
not  sue  you  for  the  price,  because  you  are  an 
infant;  but  if  you  over-drove  the  pony,  as  you 
probably  would,  and  killed  him,  that  would  be  a 
tort,  and  he  could  sue  you  and  make  you  pay 
damages,  just  the  same  as  if  you  were  as  old  as 
Methusaleh." 

"  But,  Sam,"  persisted  his  sister,  "  if  I  am  an 
infant,  how  can  I  know  the  law  ?  and,  besides,  in 
fancy  ought  to  excuse  a  great  deal  of  tortiness  or 
whatever  you  call  it."  * 


THE  DAY  AFTER  THE  FAIK.       105 

"  Oh,  we  have  a  legal  maxim  that  disposes  of 
any  such  plea — c  malitia  supplet  cetatim?  " 

"  And  what  does  that  mean  ?  " 

"  It  means  that,  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  the 
younger  you  are  the  worse  you  are — so  there's 
no  help  for  you,  Bessie ;  you  must  pawn  youi 
furs  and  pay  up." 

"  Our  trip  to  New  York  may  as  well  be  given 
up,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  in  a  coldly-despairing 
tone  ;  "  we  are  doubly  disgraced.  Last  night's 
experience  was  bad  enough,  but  this  is  a  hundred 
times  worse.  We  shall  be  the  talk  of  the  whole 
town." 

"  The  trip  to  New  York  must  not  be  given 
up,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  cheeringly.  "  We  will  go 
as  we  have  arranged,  and  better  there  than  here. 
I  will  put  this  affair  in  Mr.  Calendar's  hands,  and 
it  will  keep  till  we  come  back. — Sam,  when  is  the 
summons  returnable?  " 

"  Monday  week,  eight  days  ;  this  is  a  justice's 
court,  you  see,  and  the  time  is  short.  But  we 
shall  be  home  on  Saturday  night,  and,  if  old  Cal 
endar  doesn't  get  up  some  defense,  it  will  be  the 
first  time  he  has  failed  to  do  it.  Who  knows  but 
the  law  is  unconstitutional  ?  " 

Mr.  Limber  shook  his  head.  "  There  is  one 
comfort,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  after  her  husband  had 


106 


gathered  up  the  papers  and  taken  his  departure. 
"  Bridget  Looney  will  have  to  pay  ten  dollars  as 
well  as  the  rest." 

"  She  can  well  afford  it,"  said  Bessie ;  "  she 
gets  the  doll." 

"  I  did  not  think  of  that,"  said  her  mother. 

"  And  besides,"  said  Sam,  "  she  has  gone  off 
to  parts  unknown  and  can't  be  served." 

"  I  did  not  think  of  that  either,"  said  Mrs. 
Limber. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PUBLIC    OPINION   IN   SPINDLE. 

THERE  was  hardly  a  house  in  Spindle  in 
•which  there  was  not  a  defendant.  If  Mr.  Rich 
ard  Folio's  object  was  to  make  a  sensation,  he 
certainly  had  succeeded,  and,  if  it  is  an  advantage 
to  be  discussed,  he  was  enjoying  it  to  the  fullest 
extent.  Public  opinion,  with  its  usual  disdain  of 
fact  and  law,  made  up  its  own  case.  Dick  Folio 
was  denounced  as  a  designing  scamp  of  an  at 
torney,  whose  innocent  victims  (a  rather  ignoble 
army  of  martyrs)  were  walking  about  Spindle, 
to  the  number  of  nearly  fivescore,  each  suffering 
under  the  same  summons  and  complaint,  and 
without  an  available  remedy  or  defense. 

Even  those  who  had  taken  no  chances  in  the 
raffle,  and  who  had  not  been  at  the  fair,  were  in 
dignant  that  so  many  people  should  be  sued.  A 
hundred  actions  in  a  forenoon  seemed  as  great  an 
outrage  on  the  community  as  a  corner  in  grain  or 
an  over-issue  of  stock.  Nothing  but  a  criminal 


108  MRS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

design  on  the  peace  of  society  could  have  in 
volved  a  whole  population  in  such  a  sudden  and 
unparalleled  vortex  of  litigation.  Some  of  the 
more  aggressive  defendants  talked  loudly  about 
blackmail,  and  hinted  that,  if  the  grand -jury  were 
in  session,  a  case  of  conspiracy  might  be  made 
out  and  the  tables  turned  on  the  prosecutors. 

With  such  voices  in  the  air  and  on  the  street- 
corners,  Mr.  Folio's  personal  safety  would  have 
been  imperilled,  had  he  been  within  reach.  But 
it  happened  that  he  had  left  Spindle,  on  a  busi 
ness  errand,  early  the  same  morning  on  which 
he  woke  up  and  found  himself  infamous.  After 
satisfying  himself  that  the  raffle-suits  were  all 
properly  launched,  he  had  gone  about  his  other 
business,  which  had  been  delayed  a  day  for  the 
express  purpose  of  enabling  him  to  attend  to 
this  exigent  prosecution.  Rumors  of  his  sudden 
unpopularity  reached  him  on  his  way  to  the  sta 
tion,  in  the  gray  of  the  dawn,  but  he  had  time 
only  to  send  a  hurried  line  in  pencil,  by  the  vigi 
lant  boy,  to  his  clients,  the  overseers  of  the  poor, 
committing  his  injured  reputation  to  their  keep 
ing,  before  the  whistle  of  the  express-train 
warned  him  to  purchase  his  ticket  and  begin  his 
journey. 

Mr.  Folio's  office  was  on  a  prominent  part  of 


PUBLIC   OPINION   IN   SPINDLE.  109 

the  main  street  of  Spindle,  on  the  ground-floor, 
and  the  door  was  reached  by  a  single  step. 
During  his  absence  the  indefatigable  boy  kept 
watch  and  ward  over  all  his  interests  and  posses- 
«sions.  Under  Mr.  Folio's  training  he  had  becomo 
well  versed  in  the  arts,  offensive  and  defensive, 
belonging  to  his  important  though  subordinate 
sphere,  and  had  been  specially  instructed  as  to 
his  personal  behavior  and  well  drilled  in  a  sort 
of  manual  adapted  to  every  emergency  of  an 
office-boy  who,  in  his  intercourse  with  chance 
visitors,  might  be  entertaining  clients  unawares. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  afternoon  this  vigi 
lant  custodian,  tired  of  watching  the  leisurely 
snow-storm  which  was  in  progress,  and  having 
completed  a  course  of  light  gymnastics,  to  the 
detriment  of  Mr.  Folio's  office  furniture,  was 
quietly  engaged  in  a  corner  of  the  room,  polishing 
his  shoes.  He  varied  the  monotony  of  this  occu 
pation  by  eating  an  apple  and  conducted  the  two 
pursuits,  wholly  at  his  ease,  discovering  no  in 
compatibility  between  them,  except  the  slight 
flavor  of  blacking  occasionally  imparted"  to  the 
fruit. 

While  thus  engaged  he  was  suddenly  inter 
rupted  by  an  octavo  volume,  bound  in  law  calf, 
which  described  a  curve  from  the  table  in  the 
8 


110  MKS.  LIMBER'S  BAFFLE. 

centre  of  the  room  to  the  side  of  his  head,  strik 
ing  it  a  glancing  blow  which,  without  seriously 
disturbing  his  equilibrium,  roused  him  to  the  con 
sciousness  that  a  visitor  required  his  attention. 

"  Holloa ! "  shouted  the  boy,  not  speaking 
from  the  manual,  "  what  do  you  mean  by  heaving 
Blackstone  at  me,  like  that?" 

"  I  wish  it  was  a  paving-stone,"  said  the 
caller,  a  stout  gentleman  in  a  crimson  cravat, 
with  a  mottled  complexion,  whom  the  observant 
boy  immediately  recognized  as  Mr.  Bender,  a 
gentleman  of  sporting  proclivities  and  a  perma 
nent  boarder  at  the  Spread-Eagle  Hotel,  who 
kept  three  horses  and  a  dog  at  Rumble's  livery- 
stable.  "  Where's  your  boss  ?  " 

"  Gone  to  Albany,  to  the  Court  cf  Appeals," 
said  Mr.  Folio's  representative,  this  time  accord 
ing  to  the  letter  of  the  manual.  "  If  there's  any 
word  to  leave  please  write  it  down,  and  if  it's 
money  I'll  receipt  for  it." 

"  I  called  in  to  punch  his  head,  that's  all," 
said  Mr.  Bender,  turning  toward  the  door. 

"  If  you'll  fix  a  time  I'll  put  it  in  his  diary, 
and  he'll  call  and  save  you  the  trouble  of  coming 
again,"  said  the  faithful  youth,  still  adhering  to 
the  text  of  the  manual. 

Mr.  Bender  looked  at  him  with  a  vengeful 


PUBLIC   OPINION   IN    SPINDLE.  Ill 

eye.  "  I  say,  you  must  be  the  young  rascal,"  he 
bawled  out,  "  who  got  me  out  of  bed  yesterday 
morning  on  false  pretenses  and  poked  papers  at 
me  through  the  crack  of  the  door,  making  be 
lieve  it  was  a  telegram." 

"I  guess  I  am,"  said  the  boy,  keeping  the 
table  between  himself  and  the  self-disclosed  de 
fendant,  with  his  hand  on  the  inkstand  as  an 
available  projectile  in  case  of  need.  "  You  was 
the  only  one  out  of  the  whole  lot  I  wasn't  sure  of, 
because  you  look  such  a  heap  different  when  you 
ain't  fixed  up.  I  didn't  know  but  I  had  waked  up 
your  great  grandfather  and  served  him  by  mis 
take,  but  you  have  admitted  service  and  now  I'm 
all  right." 

Mr.  Bender  had  not  been  unobservant  of  the 
advantage  which  the  inkstand  gave  to  the  inter 
esting  and  ingenuous  lad,  and  contented  himself 
with  casting  a  withering  look  upon  him,  and  say 
ing  in  a  lofty  tone  with  a  few  familiar  maledic 
tions,  that  both  he  and  his  master  had  better  keep 
out  of  his  way,  especially  if  he  happened  to  have 
a  horsewhip  in  his  hand  ;  and  so,  keeping  his  eye 
warily  on  the  inkstand,  Mr.  Bender  backed  out 
of  the  door. 

He  had  proceeded  along  the  street  about  a 
dozen  yards,  when  he  became  suddenly  conscious 


112 


that  a  well-packed  snowball  had  flattened  itself 
on  the  nape  of  his  neck,  at  the  summit  of  the  ver 
tebral  column,  and  was  taking  a  downward  course 
along  the  same  manly  portion  of  his  frame.  He 
executed  a  rapid  right-about  face,  to  the  infinite 
amusement  of  a  crowd  of  schoolboys,  who  were 
disporting  on  the  sidewalk  in  the  new-fallen  snow, 
and  whom  he  immediately  denounced  as  the  per 
petrators  of  this  gross  personal  outrage.  They 
shouted  a  chorus  of  denial,  and  were  unanimous 
in  attributing  it,  by  significant  gestures,  to  an 
elderly  gentleman  with  an  umbrella  and  a  carpet 
bag,  who  was  making  his  way  along  the  slippery 
pavement  near  Mr.  Folio's  office  with  great  dif 
ficulty.  Mr.  Bender  instantly  and  profanely  re 
jected  this  glacial  theory.  After  a  moment  of 
hesitation  and  with  a  spasmodic  effort,  only  par 
tially  successful,  to  rid  himself  of  so  much  of  the 
snowball  as  remained  accessible  on  the  top  of 
his  collar,  he  retraced  his  steps  in  the  direction 
of  Mr.  Folio' s  office,  to  find,  on  reaching  it,  the 
door  securely  locked,  and  the  legend  conspicu 
ous  on  the  outside — "  Gone  to  supper." 

The  next  morning  public  opinion  faced  about, 
as  rapidly  as  Mr.  Bender  had  done.  The  Spindle 
Freebooter  made  its  weekly  appearance  on  that 
day,  and  in  a  conspicuous  column  appeared  the 
following : 


PUBLIC    OPINION    IN    SPINDLE.  113 

"  CAED  TO  THE  PUBLIC. — The  overseers  of  the  poor 
of  the  town  of  Spindle  think  it  proper,  in  the  ahsence 
of  their  attorney,  Mr.  Richard  Folio,  to  state  that  the 
suits  brought  hy  them  against  the  parties  concerned  in 
the  recent  raffle  wero  not,  in  any  manner,  directly  or 
indirectly,  instigated  or  set  on  foot  hy  that  gentleman. 
On  the  contrary,  Mr.  Folio  had  no  knowledge  of  the 
subject  until  he  was  employed  as  the  attorney  of  the 
overseers,  who  are  solely  responsible  for  the  prosecution 
of  the  suits,  and  who  intend  to  enforce  the  law. 
HUGH  BOULDEE, 

Overseer,  for  Self  and  Associates" 

Mr.  Boulder  was  a  well-known  contractor  who 
had  built  most  of  the  roads  radiating  from  Spin 
dle  Court-House,  and  bridged  all  the  streams  in 
the  town.  He  stood  over  six  feet  in  his  stockings, 
arid  reckoned  his  weight  by  the  stone  instead  of 
the  pound.  At  convivial  gatherings  he  was  ac 
customed  to  break  pokers  over  his  arm,  and  at 
primary  meetings  he  was  relied  upon  to  preserve 
harmony  by  putting  refractory  delegates  out  of 
the  most  convenient  window.  A  card  from  such 
a  source  carried  conviction.  Besides  its  intrinsic 
weight,  it  was  aided  by  a  brief  editorial  comment 
at  the  foot.  The  editor  of  the  Freebooter  had  put 
his  paper  to  press  with  a  naming  editorial,  re 
flecting  public  sentiment  in  the  convex  mirror  of 


1H 


journalism,  with  the  flagrant  heading,  "BLUE 
LAW  IN  SPINDLE. — Have  we  a  Blackmailer  among 
us  ? "  But  Mr.  Boulder's  opportune  appearance, 
with  his  official  card,  accompanied  by  an  adver 
tisement  for  certain  proposals  for  building,  signed 
by  the  overseers,  immediately  metamorphosed  the 
Freebooter  into  an  organ  for  the  prosecution. 
The  projected  editorial  was  suppressed,  and  the 
press  stopped  to  replace  it  with  the  overseers' 
card  and  the  following  paragraph  double  lead 
ed: 

"  The  above  official  announcement  will  effect 
ually  annihilate  any  disparaging  and  unfounded 
rumors  reflecting  upon  our  esteemed  fellow-citi 
zen,  Mr.  Richard  Folio,  who  is  universally  re 
spected  as  one  of  the  brightest  luminaries  of  the 
Spindle  bar.  It  also  sheds  new  lustre  on  our  dis 
tinguished  overseers  of  the  poor.  Spindle  is  a 
law-abiding  community.  While,  as  a  manufact 
uring  centre,  we  claim  that  the  primary  object  of 
all  law  is  the  protection  of  home  industry,  we 
concede  that  incidental  protection  to  the  public 
morals  is  properly  within  its  province.  Let  the 
avenging  bolts  fall  where  they  may,  the  Free' 
hooter  stands  immovably  on  the  ancient  maxim, 
'  Fiat  justitia,  ruat  coelum  ! '  " 

A  copy  of  the  Freebooter  found  its  way,  with 


PUBLIC   OPINION   IN   SPINDLE.  115 

Mr.  Limber's  letters,  to  his  hotel  in  New  York. 
It  contained,  in  addition  to  the  important  matter 
we  have  already  extracted  from  its  columns,  an 
elaborate  description  of  the  fair,  in  a  style  more 
worthy  of  the  genius  and  gallantry  of  the  metro 
politan  press  than  of  a  rural  sheet,  and  discreetly 
free  from  any  allusion  to  the  raffle.  The  compli 
ments  showered  on  the  lady  managers  were  pro 
fuse,  and  Mrs.  Limber  perused  the  article  with  a 
sense  of  relief  and  satisfaction.  But  the  card 
of  the  overseers  failed  to  convince  her  of  Dick 
Folio's  innocence.  She  tersely  remarked  in  ref 
erence  to  it  that  "  you  couldn't  believe  anything 
you  saw  in  a  newspaper."  This,  it  is  true,  was 
immediately,  after  she  had  indorsed  the  article 
touching  the  fair  as  thoroughly  accurate,  but  this 
slight  inconsistency  gave  her  no  trouble.  If  any 
body  else  was  imposed  upon,  she  was  not,  and  if 
she  was  certain  of  anything  it  was  that  the  hun 
dred-headed  hydra  of  litigation  which  was  de 
vastating  Spindle  had  been  warmed  into  life  by 
the  cupidity  and  malevolence  of  greedy  Dick 
Folio. 

Bessie,  who  was  bent  on  having  "a  good 
time  "  in  New  York,  even  if,  on  her  return  home, 
she  was  to  go  straight  from  the  station  to  the 
Spindle  jail,  read  the  account  of  the  fair  with 


J>    f    *•  * 


116 


sparkling  eyes,  and  fully  accepted  Mr.  Folio's 
vindication  at  the  hands  of  the  overseers. 

"  I  never  thought  for  a  moment  Dick  would 
do  anything  mean,"  she  said  ;  "  but,  dear  Sam, 
what  does  fiat  justitia,  mat  something,  mean?" 

"It  means,"  said  Sam,  "that,  when  the  sky 
falls,  the  lawyers  will  catch  all  the  larks." 

There  was  still  another  and  less  conspicuous 
paragraph  in  the  Freebooter  which  escaped  the 
notice  of  Mrs.  Limber  and  the  young  people,  but 
which,  later  in  the  day,  and  when  alone  in  his 
parlor,  Mr.  Limber  read  with  a  quiet  satisfaction. 
It  ran  thus  : 

"  We  call  attention  to  the  advertisement, 
in  another  column,  of  the  overseers  of  the  poor, 
for  proposals  for  building  a  hospital-wing.  It 
is  to  be  erected  at  once,  and  we  have  the  very 
best  authority  for  saying  that  the  expense  is 
already  provided  for  without  calling  upon  the 
tax-pa}rers.  At  this  Christmas  season,  such  an 
announcement  is  specially  timely  and  gratify- 
ing." 

As  Mr.  Limber  cut  this  editorial  notice  from 
the  newspaper,  and  then  looked  up  the  adver 
tisement  to  which  it  referred,  and  cut  that  also 
from  another  page,  and  folded  both  away  in  his 
pocket-book,  he  seemed  well  pleased.  His  in- 


PUBLIC    OPINION   IN    SPINDLE.  117 

ventive  expression  pervaded  his  face,  and  gave  it 
a  bright  and  satisfied  air. 

"  So  far,  so  good,"  was  his  brief  soliloquy, 
and  he  went  to  his  dinner  with  a  complacent 
smile  and  a  good  appetite. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FIAT      JUSTITI  A. 

JUSTICE  HAZEY'S  court-room  had  never  be 
fore  been  so  thronged  as  on  the  return-day  of 
the  "  raffle-suits,"  as  they  had  come  to  be  popu 
larly  designated.  The  first  resentments  had  sub 
sided  ;  misery  loves  company,  and  the  great  ma 
jority  of  the  defendants  were  reconciled  to  a 
calamity  in  which  there  was  so  large  and  respect 
able  a  companionship.  It  was  generally  under 
stood  that  Mr.  Calendar  would  represent  Mr. 
Limber,  the  chief  victim  of  the  prosecution,  and, 
as  he  was  sued  for  the  considerable  sum  of  three 
hundred  dollars,  it  was  expected  that  all  the  re 
sources  of  the  law  would  be  availed  of  in  his  be 
half.  He  was  known  to  be  a  good  fighter,  and 
to  have  succeeded  in  all  his  patent-suits.  Every 
defense  interposed  by  Mr.  Limber  would,  of 
course,  inure  to  the  benefit  of  the  other  defend 
ants,  of  whom  there  were  ninety-and-nine,  process 
having  been  served  on  every  one  of  the  subscrib- 


FIAT   JUSTITIA.  119 

ers  to  the  raffle,  with  the  single  exception  of 
Bridget  Looney,  who  was  enjoying  her  honey 
moon  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Spindle  jus 
tice.  There  was  a  natural  desire  on  the  part  of 
the  ninety-and-nine  that  Mr.  Limber's  should  be 
made  a  test-case,  to  be  carried  through  all  the 
courts  of  the  State,  at  his  individual  expense  and 
risk,  and,  if  possible,  to  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  at  Washington,  a  distant  and 
dimly-comprehended  tribunal  which  disappointed 
suitors  in  State  courts  are  very  apt  to  imagine 
would  redress  all  their  wrongs,  could  it  once  get 
cognizance  of  them  on  appeal. 

Besides  the  parties  immediately  concerned, 
a  large  body  of  spectators  had  gathered  in  the 
court-room  —  village  loungers  and  do-nothings, 
old  vagabonds  who  came  to  court  every  day,  in 
winter  to  keep  warm  at  the  expense  of  the  town 
— a  crowd  of  young  people,  anxious  to  see  how 
their  impleaded  acquaintances  would  figure  as 
violators  of  the  law — and  a  respectable  number 
of  elderly  gentlemen,  who  sustained  the  action 
of  the  overseers  in  the  interest  of  a  strict  moral 
ity.  In  addition  to  these,  the  legal  profession 
was  represented  by  every  one  in  and  around 
Spindle  who  had  any  connection  with  the  prac 
tice  of  the  law,  a  collection  of  worthies  for  whom 


120 


nothing  could  be  more  attractive  than  the  nov 
elty  of  a  hundred  suits,  and  the  prospect  of  a 
hundred  trials. 

Mr.  Limber  and  Mr.  Calendar  were  among 
the  earliest  comers.  Mr.  Folio,  with  his  papers 
in  good  order,  was  seated  at  the  table  in  front  of 
the  justice's  desk.  Behind  him  waited  the  in 
dispensable  and  now  historic  boy,  furtively  en 
joying  a  large  pippin,  and  eying  the  numerous  de 
fendants  grouped  about  him,  with  the  keen  satis 
faction  of  a  sportsman  who  has  bagged  his  game. 

Sam  and  Bessie  were  ensconced  in  a  distant 
corner,  trying  to  look  perfectly  innocent  and  un 
concerned.  Their  mother,  whose  return  to  Spin 
dle  had  revived  her  earlier  sense  of  mortification, 
had  begged  Bessie  to  remain  at  home  with  her, 
feeling  that  a  stigma  rested  on  the  fair  name  of 
Limber,  which  the  proceedings  in  court  might 
deepen  into  an  ineffaceable  brand.  But  Bessie's 
curiosity  was  stronger  than  her  mother's  fears, 
and  Mrs.  Limber  finally  yielded,  parting  with 
her,  as  Bessie  said,  as  if  she  were  on  her  way  to 
the  block. 

The  justice  had  never  before  been  over 
whelmed  with  so  large  a  docket  or  such  an  array 
of  parties.  He  had  begun  life  as  a  blacksmith, 
and  in  his  experience  at  the  forge,  having  never 


FIAT  JTJSTITIA.  121 

known  a  horse  brought  to  he  shod  which  did  not 
require  shoeing,  he  assumed,  on  the  bench,  that 
no  plaintiff  came  into  court  who  was  not  entitled 
to  relief.  Accordingly,  he  administered  the  law 
oy  the  universal  application  of  the  single,  simple 
principle  that  judgment  must  be  given  in  favor 
of  every  plaintiff  and  against  every  defendant. 
This  rule  was  ordinarily  most  easy  of  enforce 
ment,  but  now  he  was  sorely  puzzled.  Here  was 
but  one  set  of  plaintiffs  and  a  hundred  defend 
ants  ;  his  term  of  office  was  about  to  expire,  and 
he  was  a  candidate  for  reelection.  He  took  his 
seat,  quite  willing  that  there  should  be  a  post 
ponement,  and  half  inclined  to  exercise  the  right 
which  the  law  gave  him,  of  adjourning  the  case 
for  eight  days,  without  reference  to  the  wishes 
of  the  parties.  Nevertheless,  being  a  somewhat 
pungnacious  justice,  he  showed  no  signs  of 
alarm,  and  looked  as  learned  as  Lord  Mansfield, 
while  he  called  the  first  case,  "  The  Overseers  of 
the  Poor  of  the  Town  of  Spindle  against  David 
Limber  and  wife." 

No  adjournment  was  asked  for.  Both  sides 
were  apparently  ready,  and  the  perplexity  of  the 
justice  was  momentarily  increasing,  when  Mr. 
Calendar  rose,  with  his  most  forensic  air,  and 
pronounced  the  opening  formula  of  "  May — it — 


122  MRS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

please — the — court,"  with  as  much  suavity  and 
gravity  as  if  he  had  been  addressing  the  Court 
of  Appeals.  There  was  something  in  his  tone 
and  manner  which  inspired  half  the  defendants 
with  the  hope  that  the  overseers  and  Dick  Folio 
were  to  be  demolished  at  a  single  blow.  A  dim 
foreboding  crossed  the  mind  of  the  aggressive 
boy,  and  he  lingered  on  his  apple  with  a  vague 
sense  of  terror.  Mr.  Calendar  seemed  to  enjoy 
the  sensation  he  was  making,  and  dwelt  upon 
his  words.  At  last  he  proceeded  : 

"  It  appears,  your  honor,  that  the  plaintiffs, 
the  overseers  of  the  poor,  besides  serving  the 
summons  in  this  case,  which  was  all  the  law  re 
quired,  have  furnished  the  defendants  with  a  copy 
of  the  complaint.  This  they  were  not  obliged 
to  do,  but  I  presume  there  is  no  objection  to  it, 
and  it  fully  apprizes  us  of  the  claim  of  the  over 
seers,  so  that  we  could  answer  at  once,  if  it  were 
necessary  to  answer  at  all.  But  I  think  there 
is  a  fatal  defect  in  the  proceedings,  and  that, 
owing  to  this  defect,  neither  my  clients  nor  any  one 
of  these  numerous  defendants  is  properly  in  court." 

"  Dear  Sam,"  whispered  Bessie  to  her  brother, 
"  how  can  Mr.  Calendar  tell  such  a  fib  ?  We  are 
defendants,  and  we  are  in  court,  and  so  are  all 
the  others." 


FIAT   JUSTITIA.  123 

"  He  means,  Bess,  that  we  are  not  in  court  in 
the  eye  of  the  law." 

"  The  law  must  be  dreadfully  near-sighted," 
said  Bessie,  very  much  puzzled,  "  not  to  be  able 
to  see  its  own  court-room  full  of  defendants  ;  but 
perhaps  I  know  now  why  Justice  is  always 
painted  blindfold." 

"The  statute,"  said  Mr.  Calendar,  after  a 
pause,  and  measuring  his  words  with  even  more 
solemnity  than  at  the  outset  of  his  remarks,  "  re 
quires  that  the  summons  shall  be  served  by  a 
constable,  but  provides  that  the  justice  may, 
when  he  deems  it  expedient,  upon  the  request  of 
a  party,  by  a  written  authority  endorsed  on  the 
summons,  empower  any  proper  person,  being  of 
lawful  age,  and  not  a  party  in  interest,  to  make 
the  service.  Now,  I  see,  by  looking  at  the  sum 
mons,  that  your  honor  did,  at  the  plaintiff's  re 
quest,  depute  a  person  who  is  not  a  constable 
to  serve  it,  and  I  am  informed  that  this  person  is 
not  of  lawful  age,  but  is  in  fact  a — " — here  Mr. 
Calendar  paused  again  to  give  due  emphasis  to 
his  final  word — "  a  boy  !  " 

"  How  do  I  know  that,  Squire  Calendar  ? " 
said  the  justice ;  "  the  summons  is  here,  and  the 
return  is  on  to  it,  and  it  shows  good  service  on 
its  face." 


124:  MRS. 

"  I  believe  the  boy  is  in  court,"  said  Mr,  Cal 
endar,  "  and  I  might  say  that  he  shows  bad  ser 
vice  on  his  face,  for  it  is  a  very  juvenile  one ; 
but,  if  the  fact  must  be  proved,  as  I  suppose  it 
must  be,  we  will  prove  it.  There  can  be  no  diffi 
culty  in  showing  who  served  the  paper." 

"  I  will  swear  to  the  boy  !  "  called  out  a  sten 
torian  voice,  in  the  outer  edge  of  the  crowd,  near 
the  door  of  the  court-room. 

<;  Silence!"  shouted  the  justice;  "this  isn't 
town-meeting." 

"  Sam,"  whispered  Bessie,  "  what  horrid  man 
is  that  who  called  out  to  the  judge  ?  " 

"  It  is  Mr.  Bender,"  said  Sam,  "  and  it  will  be 
hard  enough  to  silence  him  if  he  once  begins  to 
talk  ;  but  don't  speak,  just  now,  Bessie — I  want 
to  hear  what  will  come  next." 

"  We  will  prove,"  said  Mr.  Calendar,  "  that 
the  service  of  the  summons  and  complaint  was, 
in  every  instance,  made  by  this  boy,  unless  the 
fact  is  admitted,  and  we  will  follow  it  up  by  prov 
ing  that  he  is  not  twenty-one  years  of  age." 

"  You  can't  do  it,  squire,"  said  the  justice ; 
"  that  dodge  has  been  tried  before  now,  and  it 
won't  work.  No  defendant  has  ever  been  able  to 
make  out  that  that  boy  is  under  twenty-one." 

"  But  has  any  one  ever  been  able  to  make  out 


FIAT   JUSTITIA.  125 

that  he  is  over  twenty-one  ? "  asked  Mr.  Calen 
dar. 

"  That  ain't  the  pint,  squire,"  said  the  jus 
tice ;  "I  take  it  the  law  presumes  everyone  to 
be  of  lawful  age  until  the  contrary  appears,  and 
the  contrary  doesn't  appear.  The  court  knows 
this  boy,  and  his  uncle  being  the  constable  and 
having  but  one  leg,  he  can't  serve  summonses 
when  there's  any  call  to  be  spry,  so  this  here  boy 
is  deputized,  and  he  does  it,  and  it's  the  law  of 
this  court  that  he  is  of  lawful  age,  and  that  makes 
it  lawful ;  and  what's  more,  Squire  Calendar,  as  I 
have  to  tell  them  that  practises  here,  which  you 
don't,  a  defendant  in  this  court  who  has  got  a 
defense  had  better  put  it  in,  and  not  go  fooling 
round  on  technicalities.  If  you  are  into  a  court, 
what  odds  does  it  make  how  you  got  into  it  ? 
So  jine  issue,  squire,  if  you  are  going  to  jine, 
and  if  not  I'll  enter  judgment." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  Calendar,  good-natured 
ly,  "  if  such  is  the  law  of  the  court,  I  must  bow 
to  it,  and  all  I  can  do  is  to  put  in  a  written  plea 
to  the  jurisdiction;  alleging  the  fact  that  the 
summons  was  served  by  a  minor,  and  then  I  will 
offer  to  prove  the  fact.  This  will  save  all  our 
rights  on  appeal." 

He  sat  down  to  prepare  the  plea.  The  silence 
9 


126  MRS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

which  followed  for  a  moment  was  broken  bv  a 
crimson-nosed,  irascible  old  lawyer,  long  since  re 
tired  from  practice,  who  had  hobbled  into  the 
court-room  and  seated  himself  close  to  the  bench, 
determined  to  enjoy  the  legal  tilt  to  the  utmost 
of  his  capacity.  Mr.  Calendar's  plea  to  the  juris 
diction  delighted  him ;  and  he  turned  to  the  jus 
tice  and  growled  out  his  satisfaction. 

"  Calendar  has  got  you,  judge;  there  will  be 
a  venire  de  novo  sure." 

"  Sam,  Sam,"  said  Bessie,  shocked  at  an  inter 
ruption  which  the  justice  disregarded  ;  "  what  is 
that  awful  old  man  saying ;  is  it  any  thing  disre 
spectful  to  papa  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Sam,  "  it  is  something  disrespect 
ful  to  Justice  Hazey." 

"  Well,  do  tell  me  what  venire  de  something 
means.  Oh,  dear  1  I  wish  I  wasn't  so  ignorant.'* 

"It  means  a  rap  over  the  knuckles  by  a 
higher  court  to  a  lower  court,  and  that  is  what 
lower  courts  are  getting  all  the  time,  and  what 
old  red  nose  there  thinks  this  court  will  get,  and 
so  do  L" 

"  What  a  queer  queer  thing  law  is  1 "  solilo 
quized  Bessie. 

But  Justice  Hazey's  court  was  not  doomed  to 
experience  the  predicted  rap  over  the  knuckles. 


FIAT   JTJ8TITIA.  127 

Mr.  Limber  had  interrupted  the  preparation  of 
Mr.  Calendar's  plea  by  a  hurried  whisper,  and, 
after  a  brief  consultation  with  his  client,  the  law 
yer  quietly  dropped  his  pen,  and,  without  rising, 
said  to  the  justice  that  Mr.  Limber  preferred  to 
raise  no  question  as  to  the  service.  He  would 
therefore  waive  that  point  and  put  in  a  general 
denial,  and  let  the  overseers  of  the  poor  produce 
their  witnesses,  and  prove  their  case,  if  they  could. 
He  should  be  very  glad  to  have  them  show,  by 
competent  testimony,  the  actual  value  of  the 
bran  and  sawdust,  and  other  particles  which 
figured  so  largely  in  the  complaint,  and,  in  order 
to  relieve  his  honor  from  the  responsibility  of 
deciding  so  difficult  a  question  of  fact,  he  de 
manded  a  jury. 

The  testy  old  lawyer  was  thoroughly  dis 
gusted  at  this  sudden  extinction  of  Mr.  Calen 
dar's  plea. 

"  Why,  Calendar,  what  a  fool  you  are  !  Why 
don't  you  go  to  the  country,  without  waiving 
your  plea  to  the  jurisdiction  ?  " 

"  Dear  Sam,"  said  Bessie,  trembling  with 
alarm,  "  is  that  old  man  crazy  ?  He  is  talking  in 
the  wildest  way ;  what  does  he  mean  by  telling 
Mr.  Calendar  to  go  to  the  country,  when  he  and 
all  of  us  are  in  the  country  now  ?  " 


128  MRS.  LIMBER'S  BAFFLE. 

"Going  to  the  country,  Bess,  is  a  law-term 
for  submitting  a  case  to  a  jury." 

"  That  is  the  queerest  thing  yet,"  said  Bes 
sie  ;  "  why  do  they  call  it  going  to  the  coun 
try?" 

"  Because,"  said  Sam,  "  when  your  case  goes 
to  a  jury,  you  are  literally  c  all  abroad.' " 

"  If  you  want  a  jury,  Squire  Calendar,"  said 
the  justice,  proud  of  his  triumph,  but  very  glad 
of  the  opportunity  of  getting  rid  of  the  case  for 
the  present,  "  I  will  summon  one,  and  the  case 
will  stand  adjourned  to  this  day  week." 

But  Mr.  Limber  again  whispered  to  Mr.  Cal 
endar,  and  with  increased  earnestness  of  manner. 
After  a  few  minutes'  delay,  Mr.  Calendar  rose 
and  said,  with  his  imperturbable  smile,  that  how 
ever  perfect  his  defense  in  law  and  in  fact,  he 
was  of  course  bound  to  obey  implicitly  his  client's 
instructions,  and  these  were  to  waive  a  jury,  and 
indeed  to  waive  every  defense.  "  Mr.  Limber," 
he  continued,  "  declines  to  contest  the  suit,  and 
desires  me  to  say,  that  he  admits  all  the  facts 
stated  in  the  complaint,  and  is  ready  to  pay  the 
penalty,  or,  rather,  the  sum  of  two  hundred  dol 
lars — the  largest  sum  for  which  the  justice  could 
give  judgment." 

There  was  a  general  movement  and  murmur 


FIAT   JUSTITIA.  129 

of  surprise.  The  relieved  boy  took  a  big  bite  of 
his  apple.  Justice  Hazey,  with  great  alacrity, 
wrote  "  Settled,"  in  large  letters  on  the  summons, 
while  the  abusive  old  lawyer  growled  out : 

"  What  a  pack  of  fools  I  why,  Calendar,  that's 
afelo  de  se" 

"  Sam,  dear,"  said  Bessie,  "  what  is  a  felo  de 
se?" 

"  A  fellow  who  commits  suicide,  and  that  is 
what  papa  has  gone  and  done,"  replied  Sam,  who 
could  not  conceal  his  disappointment  and  chagrin 
at  this  unexpected  surrender  to  the  enemy. 

"  O  Sam,  what  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  I  mean  he  has  cut  his  own  throat,  but  figura 
tively,  Bess,  of  course — don't  start  so — you  can 
see  he  is  bleeding  now." 

"  Oh,  if  you  mean  papa  is  paying  the  money, 
I  understand  it ;  dear  me,  if  paying  will  only  end 
this  dreadful  law  business,  I  shall  be  only  too 
happy.  But,  Sam,  what  is  Dick  Folio  going  to 
do  now?" 

Dick  Folio  was  going  to  do  a  very  popular 
thing.  As  Mr.  Limber  counted  out  the  two  hun 
dred  dollars,  he  rose  and  said  that  of  course  this 
prompt  settlement  ended  the  case  against  Mr. 
Limber,  and  no  judgment  need  be  entered  ;  so 
far  as  the  costs  were  concerned,  he  preferred  to 


130 


waive  them.  Then,  raising  his  voice,  and  locking 
round  upon  the  audience,  he  added  that  he  was 
prepared  to  do  the  same  in  every  case  in  which 
the  defendant  would  pay  the  penalty.  The  cost 
of  printing  the  papers  he  should  wish  to  collect, 
as  the  Freebooter  office  had  kept  its  men  at  work 
nearly  all  night,  and  this  expense,  though  not 
taxable,  ought  to  be  provided  for,  but,  bejTond 
this  actual  outlay,  he  would  relinquish  all  the 
costs  if,  by  so  doing,  he  could,  at  a  personal  sac 
rifice,  aid  in  bringing  an  unpleasant  matter  to  a 
satisfactory  conclusion." 

The  general  effect  of  this  little  speech  was 
very  favorable,  but  the  irate  old  lawyer  was  now 
trebly  disgusted. 

"  Why,  Folio,  I  thought  you  had  some  sense. 
"What  a  goose  you  are  to  throw  away  your  costs  1 
You  ought  to  be  thrown  over  the  bar.  It's  five 
dollars  by  statute  in  every  case,  and  an  execution 
against  the  person  ;  you  can  have  the  money,  or 
a  cepi  corpus,  sure." 

"  Dear,  dear,  Sam  ! "  whispered  Bessie,  now 
thoroughly  alarmed,  "  who  is  cepi  corpus — is  it 
law  Latin  for  undertaker,  and  will  Dick  Folio  be 
killed  if  they  throw  him  over  the  bar ;  is  it  a  very 
high  bar?  O  Sam,  Sam,  I  shall  die  if  I  stay 
here  any  longer." 


FIAT  JU8TITIA.  131 

" Cepi  corpus"  said  Sam,  laughing,  " isn't  a 
person,  though  old  Sheriff  Pounder  thought  so, 
and  used  to  say  that  he  had  searched  all  through 
the  county  for  him  ever  since  he  was  sheriff,  with 
out  finding  him  anywhere.  It  means  bail  or  jail, 
and  perhaps  jail  anyhow." 

"  What  gibberish  you  talk  I  but  about  throw 
ing  Dick  Folio  over  the  bar,  or  whatever  it  is, 
will  he  be  hurt?" 

"No,  no,  Bess,  that's  all  metaphorical.  A 
lawyer  is  thrown  over  the  bar  when  he  gets  too 
wicked  to  practise  in  court  with  all  the  other 
lawyers." 

"  I  should  hardly  think  any  one  could  ever  get 
so  wicked  as  that,"  said  Bessie,  very  innocently. 

By  this  time  the  two  hundred  dollars  had  been 
paid  and  receipted  for,  and  Justice  Hazey  was 
beginning  to  be  in  mortal  fear  lest  he  should 
have  something  to  decide  in  the  next  case,  when 
Mr.  Calendar  again  took  the  floor  and  begged  to 
express  his  appreciation  of  the  liberal  and  gener 
ous  offer  of  his  learned  young  friend  Mr.  Folio, 
and  to  say  further  that  while  "  All's  well  that 
ends  well  "  was  not  exactly  a  legal  maxim,  unless 
indeed  Lord  Bacon,  and  not  Shakespeare,  was 
entitled  to  the  credit  of  originating  it,  it  rarely 
received  a  happier  application  than  when  lawsuits 


132  MKS.  LIMBER'S  BAFFLE. 

were  settled  and  lawyers  dispensed  with.  Hav 
ing  finished  this  little  preface,  Mr.  Calendar  went 
oti  to  say  that  he  had  great  satisfaction  in  an 
nouncing  the  further  instructions  lie  had  just  re 
ceived  from  his  client,  Mr.  Limber,  who  proposed, 
as  the  penalties  for  which  the  other  ninety-nine 
defendants  were  sued,  were  all  incurred  at  his 
own  house,  and  in  the  course  of  an  entertainment 
intended  to  contribute  only  to  the  pleasure  of 
those  who  participated  in  it,  to  pay  the  penalty 
himself  in  every  case,  together  with  the  expense 
of  printing  to  which  Mr.  Folio  had  alluded,  and 
he  was  ready  to  pay  the  money  on  the  spot. 

There  was  a  general  burst  of  applause.  In 
wardly,  Justice  Hazey  was  delighted,  and  visions 
of  a  third  term  floated  before  his  fancy.  Out 
wardly,  he  hammered  on  his  desk,  and  reminded 
his  audience  again  that  they  were  in  a  court 
room,  and  not  at  a  town-meeting.  The  abusive 
old  lawyer  was  in  a  fourfold  rage. 

"  Why,  Limber,  you  are  the  biggest  fool  in 
Spindle.  Do  you  want  me  to  sue  out  a  writ  de 
lunatico  f  " 

"  Sam,"  said  Bessie,  with  fresh  alarm,  "  what 
under  the  sun  is  a  writ  de  lunatico  f  " 

"  It  is  a  way  the  courts  have  of  writing  a  man 
down  an  ass  at  the  request  of  his  friends  and  rela- 


FIAT  JUSTITIA.  133 

tives,  but  which  old  red-nose  there  seems  to  think 
papa  lias  done  without  any  assistance." 

"  I  wish  they  would  take  the  old  wretch  out 
of  the  court-room ;  he  is  a  perfect  torment.  But, 
Sam,  who  is  this  that  is  going  to  speak  now.  I 
declare  if  it  isn't  Mr.  Bender." 

It  was  indeed  Mr.  Bender,  who,  upon  the  con 
clusion  of  Mr.  Calendar's  remarks,  had  forced  his 
way  from  a  position  near  the  door,  where,  in 
company  with  a  friend,  he  was  obscurely  nursing 
a  newly-lighted  cigar,  to  the  table  in  front  of  the 
justice.  He  was  evidently  greatly  excited,  and 
not  a  little  embarrassed ;  but  he  was  bent  on  dis 
charging  his  mind.  Mr.  Calendar  and  Mr.  Folio 
politely  made  way  for  him,  while  the  boy  silently 
stole  away  at  his  approach,  and  took  a  safe  posi 
tion  on  the  side  of  the  table  nearest  the  justice, 
with  his  eye  on  the  inkstand,  and  his  heart,  as 
well  as  his  apple,  in  his  mouth. 

"  Judge — your  honor —  "  said  Mr.  Bender,  "  I 
am  entered  here,  so  to  speak,  as  a  defendant,  arid 
and  it  is  my  intention  to  come  to  time — as  always 
—when  called."  Here  Mr.  Bender  deposited  his 
hat  and  gloves  and  cigar  on  the  table  with  great 
deliberation,  also  his  cane;  after  doing  which, 
he  divested  himself  of  his  overcoat,  adjusted 
his  crimson  necktie,  and  continued  as  follows : 


134 


"  I  suppose,  judge — your  honor — fair  play  is 
a  jewel,  even  if  you  are  in  a  court-room,  and 
whatever  is  rulable  I  abide  by,  and  the  referee's 
decision,  or  judge's,  or  umpire's,  as  the  case  may 
be,  all  of  which  your  honor  is  or  are,  so  to  speak 
— and  I  did  suppose  and  others — as  this  being  a 
general  entry  of  all  weights  and  ages  against  the 
overseers,  we  would  pool  our  pleas  or  defenses, 
so  to  speak — which  your  honor  well  understands 
though  not  exactly  expressed  in  legal  forms — but 
while  waiting  for  the  call  and  ready  for  a  fair 
start — here  comes  Mr.  Limber  and  pays  forfeit, 
and,  so  to  speak,  withdraws  the  whole  ninety- 
and-nine  entries,  colts,  fillies,  and  all,  and  the 
overseers  not  so  much  as  called,  and  optional  with 
them  to  walk  over  the  course.  Now  the  ring  is 
the  same  as  the  turf:  if  a  man's  seconds  or  backers 
throw  up  the  sponge,  all  right ;  but  so  long  as  he 
comes  to  the  scratch  and  time  not  up,  the  same 
as  I  and  other  defendants  here,  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  giving  the  stakes  to  the  other  side,  and 
what  we  want,  judge — your  honor — so  to  speak 
— is  to  throw  up  our  own  sponges  when  whipped 
and  not  before,  and  not  to  be  jockeyed  out  of  our 
defenses.  Now,  judge,  I  put  into  the  raffle, 
which  I  believe  was  drawn  regular  and  on  the 
square,  not  being  present  myself,  but  a  friend 


FIAT   JUSTITIA.  135 

took  it  in  my  name,  likewise  in  his  own,  in  aid  of 
charity — also  persuaded  by  a  young  lady — but 
seemingly  some  one  has  gone  back  on  us,  age  and 
weight  unknown — and  now  comes  the  poor  over 
seers  and  say  it's  all  against  the  law — which  we 
supposed  as  between  man  and  man  and  the  com 
munity  in  general  was — so  to  speak — a  dead 
letter,  but  says  you  the  Revived  Statues  have 
brought  it  to  life  and  set  it  a-going — supposing 
it  can  be  set  a-going  by  boys  which  Mr.  Calen 
dar  says  it  cannot  being  infants,  but  Mr.  Limber 
waives  the  boy ;  so  then  if  I  have  had  my  chance 
in  the  raffle  and  the  consequence  is  I  must  cover 
my  card  here,  so  to  speak,  with  ten  dollars,  why, 
judge,  your  honor,  it's  my  own  ten  dollars  I  want 
to  pay  and  not  another  man's,  and  if  it  comes  to 
that  let  each  one  pay  his  own  score,  say  I,  and 
pay  it  in  cash,  and  if  it  goes  to  the  poor  where's 
the  odds?" 

Here  Mr.  Bender  stopped  short,  and  sat  down 
suddenly,  in  the  seat  vacated  by  the  wary  boy,  in 
the  midst  of  a  burst  of  applause  which  the  jus 
tice  vainly  tried  to  hammer  into  silence.  Mr. 
Bender's  speech  had  proved  a  word  in  season, 
whether  fitly  spoken  or  not.  It  turned  the  tide 
of  public  opinion,  and  gave  a  new  impulse  to  the 
ninety-nine  who  hitherto  had  thought  only  of 


136 


avoiding  their  liability.  Defendants  who  had 
come  to  plead  now  wanted  to  remain  to  pay. 
The  doctrine  that  every  man  should  pay  his  own 
score,  and  pay  it  in  cash,  so  forcibly  put  by  Mr. 
Bender,  was  accepted  as  heartily  as  if  it  had 
been  a  new  discovery  instead  of  an  old  truth  set 
in  a  new  light. 

But  now  David  Limber  was  on  his  feet  again, 
waving  his  hand  in  a  deprecatory  way,  and  evi 
dently  meaning  to  be  heard.  He  was  not  a  man 
of  fluent  speech,  but,  knowing  what  he  wanted, 
and  being  bent  on  carrying  his  point,  he  was  as 
good  an  orator  for  the  occasion  as  ever  Brutus 
was,  or  Mark  Antony,  or  even  Mr.  Bender. 

"  My  friends,"  said  he,  quite  forgetting  that 
whoever  was  entitled  to  the  last  word,  Justice 
Hazey  was  entitled  to  the  first,  "  I  agree  with 
Mr.  Bender  that  every  one  should  pay  his  own 
score,  and  the  reason  why  I  insist  on  paying  all 
these  penalties  is  simply  that  they  are  my  score, 
and  no  other  man's.  As  Mr.  Calendar  has  said, 
the  raffle  was  in  my  house,  and  you  were  all 
there  on  my  invitation.  Now,  in  old  times,  as 
we  have  read  in  books,  and  perhaps  some  one 
here,  m  his  younger  days,  may  have  seen,  when, 
late  at  night,  a  party  of  good  fellows  would  lock 
the  doors  and  drink  their  toasts,  they  had  a  wild 


FIAT   JUSTITIA.  137 

way  of  throwing  their  glasses  over  their  shoul 
ders  and  letting  them  break  on  the  floor.  I  don't 
believe  any  of  them  got  a  bill  next  day  from 
their  host  for  broken  glass.  Now,  you  came  to 
my  house  to  have  a  merry  time,  and  it  seems 
while  you  were  there  you  broke  the  law.  Well, 
that's  my  affair,  not  yours,  the  same  as  if  I  had 
set  you  at  a  game  of  blind-nxan's-buff  instead  of 
the  raffle,  and  you  had  run  against  a  mirror  or  a 
vase  and  broken  it,  instead  of  running  against 
the  Revised  Statutes  and  breaking  them.  What 
is  done  under  my  own  roof,  by  my  own  guests, 
is  my  loss,  and  I  must  bear  it.  And  besides,  I 
might  have  known,  and  perhaps  I  did  know,  you 
were  running  just  this  risk,  and,  if  I  let  it  go  on, 
who  else  should  stand  in  the  gap  ?  One  thing 
you  may  take  my  word  for,  no  one  has  done  any 
thing  mean  in  setting  the  overseers  against  you, 
as  Mr.  Bender  seems  to  think.  They  could  not 
have  done  differently,  and  they  need  this  money 
for  a  new  hospital  for  our  poor,  and  it's  a  thing 
I've  long  had  in  mind  to  do,  and  if  I  do  it  in  this 
way  it  isn't  paying  your  debts,  but  only  giving 
a  Christmas-present  to  the  poor;  and,  for  the 
chance  to  do  it,  I  owe  you  all  my  thanks." 

Mr.  Limber's  tone  and  manner  showed  plainly 
that  he  meant  every  word  he  said,  and  it  would 


rXYlftSX'TT 


138 


not  do  to  disappoint  him.  Mr.  Bender  was 
shaken,  but  not  convinced.  He  had  lost  breath 
in  his  long  speech,  and,  after  Mr.  Limber's  re 
joinder,  he  was  by  no  means  certain  of  his 
ground,  though  he  had  no  idea  of  giving  it  up. 
But,  before  he  could  get  on  his  feet  or  say  a 
word,  Mr.  Folio  jumped  up  and  informed  the 
court  that,  while  Mr.  Limber  was  speaking,  Mr. 
Calendar  had  passed  over  to  him  his  client's 
check  for  the  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  dol 
lars,  and  had  settled  with  him  for  the  expenses, 
so  that  all  the  penalties  were  paid  and  the  suits 
ended,  and  the  overseers  had  no  claim  against 
any  one. 

Mr.  Bender  had  just  recovered  his  breath. 
"  Is  that  rulable  ?  "  he  began ;  but  the  justice 
was  having  a  word  with  Mr.  Calendar,  and  paid 
no  heed  to  the  question. 

The  irascible  old  lawyer,  who  felt  that  he  had 
been  cheated  out  of  his  day's  sport,  answered  it 
for  him*  "  Rulable  ?  yes — with  such  a  nest  of 
ninnies;  put  up  your  money,  Bender,  and  it  will 
be  the  most  sensible  thing  that  has  been  done  in 
this  court-room  to-day. 

"  Then  must  I  let  another  man  pay  my  for 
feit  ?  "  said  Mr.  Bender,  trying  to  work  himself 
into  a  passion. 


FIAT   JUSTITIA..  139 

"  Yes,"  said  the  old  lawyer,  "  its  damnum 
absque  injuria" 

"  Dear  Sam,"  said  Bessie,  "  that  dreadful  old 
man  is  beginning  to  swear.  Why  does  the  judge 
allow  it?  The  constable  ought  to  put  him  out." 

"  He  is  very  much  put  out  as  it  is,"  said  Sam; 
"  but,  Bess,  he  wasn't  swearing — that  was  some 
more  of  his  law  Latin." 

"  It'  sounded  very  profane.  What  did  it  all 
mean  ?  " 

"It  meant  that  people  are  sometimes  more 
frightened  than  hurt,  and  that  is  the  condition  of 
Mr.  Bender,  and  all  these  other  ninety-and-nine, 
thanks  to  papa." 

"  Sam,"  said  Bessie,  after  a  moment's  pause, 
"  isn't  papa  perfectly  splendid  ?  " 

"  He  has  paid  out  a  lot  of  money,"  said  Sam, 
thoughtfully. 

"  For  all  that,"  said  Bessie,  "  it  is  gorgeous — 
oh,  I  do  want  to  kiss  papa  ever  so  much !  " 

"  There  is  nothing  to  hinder,"  said  Sam ; 
"  everybody  is  going  away  and  we  will  go  too, 
and  let  mamma  know  how  this  has  turned  out." 

Bessie  was  by  her  father's  side  in  a  moment, 
and  her  arms  were  around  his  neck.  David  Lim 
ber  was  a  hero  to  his  daughter,  and  she  wanted 
to  give  him  an  ovation.  Her  feeling  was  largely 


1-10 


shared  by  many  others,  who  thronged  around  him 
and  were  loud  in  their  expressions  of  satisfaction 
at  the  unlooked-for  turn  which  his  liberality  had 
given  to  the  proceedings  of  the  day. 

Mr.  Calendar  waited  for  the  excitement  to 
subside,  and  then  said  to  his  client,  in  the  hearing 
of  Mr.  Bender,  who  seemed  half  disposed  to 
remonstrate  against  the  injustice  which  he  had 
suffered : 

"  You  have  had  your  own  way,  Limber,  as  you 
generally  do,  and  I  congratulate  fyou.  There  is 
one  thing  you  must  see  to  in  order  to  vindicate 
the  majesty  of  the  law.  There  is  a  section  of 
the  statute  which  I  did  not  read  to  you,  declaring 
all  raffling  contracts  void,  so  that  the  winner  is 
not  entitled  to  the  prize.  She  may  have  her  dol 
lar  back,  but  not  the  doll.  Tell  Mrs.  Limber  this. 
I  think  you  told  me  the  girl  had  gone  away." 

"  Yes,  and  the  doll  is  in  Mrs.  Limber's  cus 
tody." 

<k  By  all  means  let  her  keep  it  safely ;  it  would 
be  a  thousand  pities  if  she  slipped  through  j'Our 
fingers  now." 

"  Come  with  me,  Calendar,  and  take  your  din 
ner  with  us,  and  explain  this  and  all  the  rest  to 
my  wife.  I  want  Folio,  too,"  and  Mr.  Limber 
hurried  to  arrest  the  successful  attorney  for  the 


FIAT   JUSTITIA.  141 

overseers,  who  was  descending  the  steps  with 
Sam,  and  vainly  endeavoring  to  answer  the  ques 
tions  with  which  he  was  plying  him. 

Mr.  Bender  lingered  with  his  Mend  in  the 
precincts  of  the  temple  of  justice.  He  was  in  an 
uncomfortable  frame  of  mind.  The  ten-dollar 
note  which  he  had  taken  from  his  pocket  as  he 
closed  his  address,  for  the  purpose  of  paying  his 
score,  and  which  the  old  lawyer  had  advised  him 
to  put  up  again,  was  twisted  around  the  fore 
finger  of  his  right  hand  and  he  looked  at  it  with 
an  uneasy  expression.  He  was  the  last  man  to 
quit  the  court-house.  He  paused  in  the  vesti 
bule  to  relight  his  cigar,  saying  to  his  companion 
as  he  did  so — 

"  I've  half  a  mind  to  light  it  with  this  green 
back  ;  let's  go  to  the  Shades  and  take  a  drink." 

The  Spindle  Shades,  although  a  tippling-house 
and  justly  under  the  ban  of  reputable  society, 
was  a  comparatively  decent  and  quiet  place  of 
resort,  frequented  by  a  better  class  of  drinkers 
than  those  who  haunted  the  lower  dram-shops  of 
Spindle.  Mr.  Bender  and  his  friend  were  evi 
dently  not  chance  customers,  and  a  certain  degree 
of  familiarity  with  their  tastes  was  exhibited 
by  the  bar-tender,  as  he  anticipated  their  wants 
in  a  manner  satisfactory  to  both, 
10 


142 


"  Been  to  court  ?  "  asked  the  bar-tender  as  the 
empty  glasses  were  set  down. 

"Just  come  from  there,"  said  Mr.  Bender, 
"  and  you  don't  catch  me  in  another.  It's  a  kind 
of  game  where  an  honest  sport  has  no  chance." 

"  I  can  tell  you  something  that  likely  you 
don't  know,"  said  the  bar-keeper,  polishing  the 
surface  of  his  counter ;  "  that  church  doll,  as  they 
call  it,  belongs  here  and  is  a-coming  here." 

"  How  is  that  ?  "  said  Mr.  Bender,  with  evi 
dent  surprise  and  no  little  curiosity. 

"  Just  this  way.  It  was  won  in  the  raffle  by 
Bridget  Looney,  Mrs.  Looney  that  is,  you  know, 
Pat's  wife,  and  she  writes  a  letter  from  New 
York,  it's  Pat's  writing  be  sure,  and  he  was  al 
ways  a  bit  of  a  scholar,  and  her  name  is  signed 
to  it,  and  she  gives  the  doll  over  to  the  Spindle 
Shades ;  and  this  morning  the  letter  came,  and 
the  boss  has  sent  two  of  us  up  to  Limber's  to  fetch 
it.  They'll  be  here  pretty  soon." 

"  What  do  you  want  of  a  doll  here  ?  "  said 
Mr.  Bender. 

"  Why,  you  see  it's  £  Pat  Looney's  luck,'  they 
call  it,  for  his  number  carried  it  off  from  all  the 
big  folks,  and  Pat  promised  it  and  his  wife  to  set 
it  up  here  as  a  kind  of  memory-piece,  seeing  he's 
gone  away  for  good ;  and  we  are  going  to  put  it 


FIAT   JUSTITIA.  143 

just  here,"  said  the  bar-tender,  pointing  to  a 
wooden  shelf  projecting  from  the  base  of  the  mir 
ror  behind  him,  a  bad  eminence  on  which  Centu- 
ria  might  rest,  her  form  reflected  at  full  length 
4n  the  polished  surface  at  her  back,  with  transient 
glimpses  of  her  face  and  front  in  the  silver-plated 
mountings  of  the  ale-pumps  at  her  feet,  flanked 
on  either  side  by  the  tall  glasses  whose  reversed 
bases  supported  lemons  of  enormous  size,  while 
brilliant  tankards  and  colored  bottles  of  various 
hues  formed  a  resplendent  pyramid,  on  whose 
apex  she  would  seem  to  stand  or  soar. 

u  Pat  Looney's  luck  !  "  sneered  Mr.  Bender  ; 
"  she  has  brought  bad  luck  to  whoever  has  had 
to  do  with  her." 

"  Not  to  Pat,"  said  the  bar-tender,  as  he  swept 
his  cloth  over  the  smooth  surface  of  his  counter, 
for  a  final  polish,  "  he  always  comes  out  ahead  ; 
bless  you,  if  he  was  run  for  guv'ner  he'd  be  elected. 
He  is  up  for  Assemblyman  now,  and  sure  to  win." 

"Who  has  gone  for  the  doll?"  asked  Mr. 
Bender,  twirling  the  still  unpocketed  bank-note 
in  his  fingers. 

"  The  twins.  They  were  sitting  around  here 
and  the  boss  gave  them  the  letter,  and  they 
started  half  an  hour  ago.  It's  a  bit  of  a  walk  c  ut 
to  Limber's  and  back." 


144  MRS.  LIMBER'S  BAFFLE. 

"  The  twins  "  was  the  familiar  designation  of 
a  couple  of  good-for-naughts,  in  no  way  related 
to  each  other,  except  by  the  natural  tie  of  deprav 
ity,  who  made  the  Spindle  Shades  their  head 
quarters,  and  were  proud  of  being  regarded  as 
its  most  faithful  allies. 

"  Mr.  Bender,  without  a  word  further,  paid 
his  reckoning  and  left  the  place.  When  he  gained 
the  street  he  paused,  took  a  few  slowly-drawn 
whiffs  of  his  cigar,  and  then  said  to  his  com 
panion,  in  a  solemn  tone: 

"  It's  my  judgment  these  fellows  are  not  en 
titled  to  that  doll.  The  raffle  is  broke  up  by  law, 
the  forfeits  paid,  the  stakes  can't  be  paid  over. 
It  ain't  rulable.  There's  no  law  for  it." 

"  What's  all  that  to  you  ? "  said  his  friend. 
"  Haven't  you  had  law  enough  about  that  blessed 
raffle  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Bender,  "  too  much  law  and 
no  justice.  Come  along,  and  we  will  make  things 
right  yet.  You  and  I  can  meet  these  precious 
twins  half-way,  and  take  the  doll  from  them  and 
return  it  to  the  owner.  Pat  Looney's  wife  has 
no  right  to  it,  no  more  than  you  or  I.  She  can 
have  her  dollar,  but  not  the  doll ;  these  were 
Squire  Calendar's  very  words,  and  I'll  swear  to 
them." 


FIAT   JU8TITIA.  145 

"  I  heard  all  that,"  said  his  friend,  "  but  what 
gives  you  the  right  to  take  it  away  from  them 
that  has  it  ?  It  will  be  grand  larceny,  or  assault 
and  battery,  and  that  boy  or  somebody  will  be 
after  you,  sharp." 

Mr.  Bender  untwisted  the  greenback,  and 
folded  it  so  as  to  display  its  figures. 

"  Seems  to  me,"  said  he,  "  as  though  this  ten 
dollars  was  owing  to  some  one,  I  don't  know 
who.  When  we  meet  the  twins,  we'll  tell  them 
the  raffle  is  off,  and  they've  got  stolen  property 
in  hand,  and  it'll  be  six  months  in  the  county  jail 
for  each  of  them,  and  they  had  better  get  rid  of 
it,  and  take  ten  dollars  in  exchange,  and  who 
should  ever  know  that  they  got  the  doll,  if  they 
have  got  it,  seeing  there's  no  right  to  have  it  ? 
Come  on,"  repeated  Mr.  Bender,  as  the  success 
of  his  project  seemed  all  the  clearer  from  his  lucid 
statement  of  it. 

"  But  there's  a  lady  in  the  case,"  urged  his 
cautious  friend,  "  even  if  her  name  is  Bridget." 

"  The  lady  in  the  case,"  said  Mr.  Bender,  "  is 
Mrs.  Limber.  You  may  come  or  not,  as  you 
please,  but  I  am  going.  I'll  see  justice  done. 
Oh,  you  are  coming.  Well,  we  are  on  the  home 
stretch  now  and  a  clear  field." 


CHAPTER  X. 

APOTHEOSIS    OF    CENTUBIA. 

MKS.  LIMBER  had  ample  opportunity,  after 
the  departure  of  her  husband  and  children  for 
the  court-house,  to  review  the  checkered  course 
of  events  which  had  its  origin  in  the  ill-fated 
raffle.  She  saw,  clearly  enough,  that  her  hus 
band's  warning  voice,  even  though  it  was  but  an 
echo  of  Mr.  Proser's  bodements,  might  better 
have  been  heeded.  At  the  same  time  she  found 
consolation  in  the  purity  of  her  intentions  in  be 
half  of  St.  Parvus,  and  in  the  certainty  that  no 
human  being,  not  even  Mr.  Proser  himself,  could 
have  foreseen  that  the  horrid  monster  of  litiga 
tion,  now  stalking  through  the  peaceful  homes 
of  Spindle,  would  have  been  evoked,  as  by  some 
wicked  enchantment,  from  her  innocent  scheme. 
The  closing  scenes  of  the  fair  were  an  abiding 
source  of  discomfort.  She  had  parted  from  her 
friend  Mrs.  Chancel,  if  not  in  anger,  at  least  in 
irritation,  and  she  felt  that  this  too  was  partly 


APOTHEOSIS   OF  CENTURIA.  147 

due  to  her  own  want  of  candor.  She  had  not 
dealt  fairly  with  her  friend.  The  more  she  re 
flected  the  more  vexed  she  became  with  herself, 
and,  at  last,  yielding  to  a  sudden  impulse,  she 
resolved  to  go  at  once  to  Mrs.  Chancel,  and  tell 
her  the  whole  story  of  Pat  Looney's  luck  and 
Bridget's  dire  revenge,  so  that,  whatever  might 
be  the  issue  of  the  trial,  she  should  be  at  peace 
with  her  friend. 

A  dozen  steps  from  her  gate  she  encountered 
Mrs.  Chancel  herself.  A  corresponding  stress  of 
emotions,  and  the  pressure  of  self-reproach  for 
her  parting  sarcasm,  and,  even  more  than  these, 
the  spur  of  new  and  startling  discoveries,  had 
driven  her  from  the  rectory  to  Mrs.  Limber.  The 
two  friends  embraced  each  other,  and  the  shadow 
of  their  misunderstanding  was  lost  in  the  sun 
shine  of  a  cordial  greeting,  renewed  in  Mrs.  Lim 
ber's  parlor,  with  fresh  demonstrations  of  affec 
tion,  unhindered  by  furs  and  wraps.  The  two 
ladies  seated  themselves,  side  by  side,  on  a  sofa 
before  the  fire,  and  Mrs.  Chancel,  as  her  manner 
was,  began  the  conversation. 

"  So  it  is  your  husband,  my  dear,  who  has 
gone  and  turned  State's  evidence,  and  given  all 
this  information  to  the  overseers  of  the  poor, 
and  got  himself,  and  you,  and  all  of  us  sued.  It 


148  MRS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

is  his  latest  invention,  and  surely  the  newest,  if 
not  the  most  useful.  I  never  imagined  he  was 
such  a  genius  ! " 

Mrs.  Limber  looked  unutterable  ignorance  and 
unmistakable  curiosity. 

"  You  must  know,  then  ;  and,  of  course,  there 
was  no  way  of  your  guessing  it  before,  that  Mr. 
Limber  has  been  to  the  rectory  this  morning, 
and  confessed  all  to  Mr.  Chancel." 

"  All  what  ?  "  gasped  Mrs.  Limber. 

"  All  this,"  said  Mrs.  Chancel,  w  that,  after  he 
saw  we  were  fully  bent  and  determined  on  the 
raffle — and  you  know,  dear,  we  were  fully  bent 
and  determined  on  it — and  after  he  had  been  to 
my  husband  to  get  him  to  stop  it,  and  he,  poor 
man,  couldn't  exactly  grasp  the  subject,  as  he 
says,  then  Mr.  Limber  went  to  John  Calendar, 
and,  without  letting  him  into  any  of  his  plans, 
got  from  him  all  the  law  about  raffles  and  lot 
teries  out  of  the  Revised  Statutes  and  the  con 
stitution,  and  I  don't  know  how  many  more 
musty  law-books,  all  mixed  up  with  John  Calen 
dar's  crotchets,  I  suppose.  And  then  came  Mr. 
Limber's  grand  invention ;  having  made  the  dis 
covery  that  the  overseers  of  the  poor  could  sue 
everybody  concerned  in  the  raffle,  he  devised  the 
plan  of  having  everybody  sued,  himself  included ; 


APOTHEOSIS   OF   CENTTJRIA.  149 

then,  to  show  that  it  was  all  his  doing,  and  no 
one's  else,  he  made  Mr.  Calendar  give  him  a  re 
ceipted  bill,  with  the  date,  so  that,  if  need  be,  he 
could  prove  that  this  was  all  planned  before  the 
raffle,  and  then  off  he  went  to  Huge  Boulder,  as 
the  boys  call  him,  the  head-man  of  the  overseers 
of  the  poor,  and  showed  him  the  law,  and  told 
him  that  if  the  new  hospital  was  ever  to  be  built, 
here  was  the  way  to  get  the  money,  and  you 
may  be  sure  he  jumped  at  it,  and  so  did  they  all. 
Mr.  Calendar  was  their  lawyer,  but  he  mistrusted 
what  your  husband  was  about,  and  wrote  to  the 
overseers  of  the  poor  to  employ  Dick  Folio,  if 
they  had  any  suits  to  bring.  So  Dick  was  the 
attorney,  and  your  husband  contrived  that  he 
should  buy  the  subscription-list,  so  as  to  make 
sure  of  the  names,  and  so  as  to  have  the  papers 
all  printed  at  night,  and  everybody  caught  next 
morning,  as  they  were,  all  but  Bridget  Looney ; 
and  then,  last  of  all,  and  best  of  all,  what  does 
he  do,  after  letting  every  one  fret  and  fume  for  a 
week,  but  come  into  court  and  pay  all  the  penal 
ties  out  of  his  own  pocket,  just  as  he  told  Mr. 
Chancel,  early  this  morning,  he  meant  to  do,  and 
he  has  paid  the  balance  of  the  church  debt  be 
sides,  and  he  means  to  pay  whatever  more  the 
hospital  may  cost,  though  that  is  a  secret,  and 


150  MBS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

all  this  is  Mr.  Limber's  Christmas-present  to  the 
poor  of  Spindle  ! " 

"  It  is  just  like  him,"  burst  out  Mrs.  Limber, 
her  eyes  as  full  as  her  heart.  Then  she  began 
to  cry  with  all  her  might. 

Up  to  that  moment  Mrs.  Chancel  had  not 
thought  of  such  a  thing  as  crying  over  this  good 
news,  but  she  could  not  resist  the  contagion,  and 
her  tears  flowed  faster  than  her  friend's. 

Mrs.  Limber  suddenly  stopped  crying. 

"  I  declare  we  are  two  fools.  He  has  made 
you  and  me  and  all  of  us  ridiculous.  Dear  me  1 
what  shall  we  do  with  these  husbands  ?  " 

"  After  all,"  said  Mrs  Chancel,  with  dry  eyes, 
"  isn't  it  just  a  little  bit  nearer  the  truth  that  we 
have  made  ourselves  ridiculous  ?  " 

"  Perhaps  so,"  said  Mrs.  Limber ;  "  and  that 
is  ever  so  much  better  than  being  made  ridicu 
lous  by  anybody  else." 

"  Another  thing,  my  dear,"  said  Mrs  Chancel, 
"your  husband  has  converted  Mr.  Chancel  en 
tirely.  He  says  we  and  he  were  all  wrong,  and 
Mr.  Limber  was  all  right,  that  the  raffle  never 
ought  to  have  been,  and  that  he  should  have  in 
terfered  and  broken  it  up  when  he  was  applied  to. 
He  is  perfectly  in  love  with  Mr.  Limber.  Do  you 


APOTHEOSIS   OF   CENTUEIA.  151 

know,  I  think  what  won  his  heart  was  his  com 
ing,  as  it  were,  to  confessional." 

"  But,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  "  I  thought  you 
said  just  now  that  Mr.  Chancel  confessed  he  was 
all  wrong,  and  Mr.  Limber  was  all  right." 

"  Oh,  dear,  yes,  but  he  only  confessed  to  me — 
husband  to  wife — and  that  is  a  kind  of  confession, 
you  know,  which  even  Presbyterians  believe  in." 

"  At  all  events,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  "  confess 
ing  one  to  another  is  Scriptural,  and  I  have  a 
confession  to  make  to  you.  I  was  coming  to 
make  it  when  we  met  at  my  gate ;  "  and  then 
Mrs.  Limber  unburdened  her  conscience  and  told 
the  whole  story  of  her  encounter  with  Bridget, 
and  of  the  subsequent  plots  and  machinations  of 
that  unblushing  bride. 

"  I  never  felt  easy  about  the  raffle,"  said  Mrs. 
Limber,  "  from  the  moment  of  my  scene  with 
Bridget ;  but  who  could  have  dreamed  of  what 
has  happened  ?  " 

"  Who,  indeed  ?  "  chimed  in  Mrs.  Chancel ; 
"  but,  my  dear  child,"  she  suddenly  exclaimed, 
looking  in  the  direction  of  the  front-windows, 
which  opened  to  the  floor,  "  what  in  the  world 
are  those  two  men  coming  here  for  ? "  and  in 
great  alarm  she  pointed  out  what  seemed  to  her 
the  worst-looking  couple  she  had  ever  seen  in 


152  MRS.  LIMBER'S  BAFFLE. 

Spindle.  The  truth  is,  that  daylight  was  particu 
larly  unbecoming  to  the  twins,  who,  like  many 
fashionable  young  ladies,  looked  their  worst  in 
the  morning,  and,  as  they  reconnoitred  the 
premises  with  an  aggressive  air,  intent  on  their 
mission  as  the  escort  of  Centuria  to  the  Shades, 
the  two  ladies  were  on  the  brink  of  a  panic. 

"What  shall  we  do?"  cried  Mrs.  Chancel; 
"  are  there  no  men  in  the  house  ?  " 

Mrs.  Limber  hurriedly  closed  the  inside  shut 
ters  and  rang  the  bell.  She  then  ran  to  fasten 
the  chain  of  the  front-door,  but  it  had  so  chanced 
that  when  the  two  ladies  entered  the  house  they 
had  inadvertently  left  the  door  unlatched,  and 
the  wind  had  opened  it,  so  that,  as  the  mistress 
of  the  mansion  stepped  into  the  hall,  she  found 
herself  face  to  face  with  the  invaders.  They  had 
paused  on  the  door-step,  and  taken  an  attitude 
sufficiently  pacific  and  respectful  to  disarm  any 
suspicion  that  they  were  the  common  enemies  of 
mankind.  Both  were  smoking,  but  it  was  evi 
dently  the  pipe  of  peace  whose  odors  were  waft 
ed  toward  Mrs.  Limber,  as  she  received  the  salu 
tations  which  were  tendered  her.  One  of  the 
two  made  a  slight  advance,  holding  forth  a  let 
ter,  which  Mrs.  Limber,  with  a  spasm  of  courage, 
actually  took. 


APOTHEOSIS    OF   CENTUKIA.  153 

At  this  juncture,  the  housemaid  appeared  in 
answer  to  the  bell,  and  motioning  to  her  to  re 
main  on  guard,  Mrs.  Limber  reentered  the  parlor, 
wondering  at  her  own  daring,  and  exciting  the 
equal  wonder  of  Mrs.  Chancel  by  exhibiting  the 
letter  of  which  she  had  been  made  the  recipient. 
It  was  addressed  to  Mrs.  Limber,  and  under  the 
concentrated  gaze  of  her  own  eyes,  and  those  of 
Mrs.  Chancel,  its  contents  were  soon  disclosed  as 
follows : 

NEW  YORK,  December  15,  18—. 
MBS.  DAVID  LIMBER  : 

If  my  chance  wins,  it  is  number  63,  and  Miss  Bes 
sie  has  my  money,  please  will  you  deliver  the  doll  to 
the  gentleman  which  brings  this,  it  is  in  full  of  all 
demands,  and  it  is  a  free  Christmas  gift  to  the  Spindle 
Shades  from  me  and  Pat,  which  he  sends  his  respects, 
baring  no  malice,  and  I  am  the  same,  no  more  at  pres 
ent,  from  your  friend, 

BRIDGET  LOONEY. 

"  Oh,  get  it,  get  it  quick ! "  said  Mrs.  Limber. 
"  No,  stay  here  and  I  will  go  for  it." 

"Let  me  go,"  said  Mrs.  Chancel,  who  saw 
that  any  reopening  of  the  raffle  gave  a  new  shock 
to  Mrs.  Limber's  nerves.  "  Where  is  it  ?  " 

"In  my  cedar-closet,  on  the  top  shelf,  right- 
hand  side,  in  a  paper  box.  The  key  is  in  the 


154:  MRS.  LIMBER'S  BAFFLE. 

basket  on  the  bureau  in  my  bedroom.  I  shall 
only  be  too,  too  glad  when  it  is  out  of  the 
house." 

Mrs.  Chancel  mounted  the  stairs,  found  the 
key  and  the  box,  and  with  her  own  hands  de 
livered  Centuria  to  the  twins.  She  thought  of 
the  murderers  in  the  Tower  and  of  the  babes  in 
the  wood,  and  of  all  the  braces  of  stage-villains 
she  had  ever  read  of  or  heard  of  or  seen,  and 
shuddered  at  her  own  temerity.  It  never  oc 
curred  to  her  to  appreciate  the  involuntary  trib 
ute  which  the  two  scamps  paid  to  her  sex,  in  re 
ceiving  the  package  from  her,  without  scrutiny 
or  question,  never  doubting  that  a  lady,  such  as 
she,  was  to  be  trusted  with  implicit  faith. 

The  envoys  of  the  winning,  if  not  the  win 
some  bride,  took  their  departure,  wholly  uncon 
scious  of  the  terror  with  which  they  had  inspired 
the  ladies,  and  of  the  admiration  they  had  excited 
in  the  housemaid,  who  followed  their  retreating 
footsteps  with  her  eyes,  and  with  a  tender  regret 
that  the  rapid  movements  of  Mrs.  Chancel  had 
nipped  in  the  bud  an  acquaintance  which  had 
progressed  no  further  than  the  preliminary  stages 
of  two  winks  and  a  double  blush. 

The  door  had  been  closed  for  about  half  an 
hour  on  Centuria  and  her  new  custodians,  when 


APOTHEOSIS   OF  CENTTJEIA.  155 

Mr.  Limber,  Sam,  and  Bessie,  accompanied  by 
Mr.  Calendar,  Dick  Folio,  and  the  rector,  whom 
they  had  overtaken  in  their  rapid  walk  from  the 
court-house,  mounted  the  steps.  Mrs.  Limber 
had  recovered  from  the  shock  of  her  last  en 
counter,  sufficiently  to  be  in  readiness  for  a  meet 
ing  to  which  her  husband  had  looked  forward 
with  no  little  uneasiness.  The  presence  of  Mrs. 
Chancel  at  once  assured  him  that  his  wife  knew 
all,  the  smiles  which  greeted  him  augured  well, 
and  in  an  instant  all  doubts  were  dispelled,  as  her 
arms  were  thrown  around  his  neck,  and  he  heard 
her  saying,  her  voice  broken  by  a  succession  of 
little  sobs  and  little  kisses,  "Do  forgive  me, 
dear  husband,  and — and,  I  will  forgive  you." 

David  Limber  was  a  man  of  few  words  and 
few  kisses.  He  gave  his  wife  a  hearty  hug,  and 
sat  down  beside  her  on  the  sofa.  It  was  mani 
fest  that,  whoever  was  to  forgive,  and  whatever 
was  to  be  forgiven,  the  transaction  was  com 
plete. 

While  this  little  interlude  was  in  progress, 
Mrs.  Chancel  had  been  engaged  in  questioning 
the  new-comers  as  to  the  incidents  of  the  trial. 
Mr.  Limber  interrupted  a  graphic  description 
which  Dick  Folio  was  giving  to  his  wife  of  Jus 
tice  Hazey's  proceedings,  by  repeating  Mr.  Cal- 


&TFoW^ 


156 


endar's  injunction  to  keep  possession  of  the 
doll. 

"  You  must  see  to  it,  Martha,  that  it  is  not 
given  up  to  Bridget  Looney.  The  raffle  was  ille 
gal  and  void.  She  is  to  have  her  money  back  but 
not  the  doll ;  so  be  sure  that  she  does  not  get  it." 

"  But  she  has  got  it  already,"  shrieked  Mrs. 
Limber.  "  It  is  but  just  now,  two  dreadful,  desper 
ate  men  came  and  demanded  it,  and  took  it  away. 
What  could  we  do  ?  We  were  alone  in  the 
house  with  the  women.  Oh,  dear !  I  am  the  most 
wretched  creature  alive.  Is  there  to  be  no  end 
to  my  misery  ?  " 

"  Two  men  are  not  Bridget,"  said  Sam ;  "  we 
know  that  she  is  away  and  cannot  be  found." 

"  They  had  her  written  order,"  said  Mrs.  Chan 
cel,  producing  it  as  she  spoke. 

Sam  took  the  letter  and  read  it  aloud.  "  It 
is  plain  enough,  said  he,  as  he  folded  it  again, 
"  Centuria  has  gone  to  the  Spindle  Shades.  She 
is  a  trophy  of  the  luck  of  the  Looneys.  She  will 
be  metamorphosed  into  a  divinity  of  drinks." 

"  What  a  cruel  apotheosis  for  a  Christian  doll," 
cried  Mrs.  Chancel,  "  and  to  think  that  I  gave  her 
with  my  own  hands  !  " 

"  But  it  was  all  my  fault,"  sobbed  Mrs.  Lim 
ber. 


APOTHEOSIS   OF   CENTUEIA.  157 

A  sudden  outcry  from  Bessie,  who  had  turned 
to  the  window  to  hide  her  vexation,  broke  in 
upon  her  mother's  lament. 

"  Are  they  coming-  again  ? "  groaned  Mrs. 
Chancel,  before  whose  mental  vision  the  twins 
were  in  constant  view. 

"  No,  but  Mr.  Bender  and  another  rnan  are 
coming,  and  I  do  believe  they  are  bringing  Cen- 
turia  back.  Oh,  it  is  too  good  to  be  true,  but  at 
all  events  they  have  got  the  box. — Run,  Sam  !  oh, 
if  it  should  be  empty  after  all ! " 

Sam  was  at  the  street-door  in  an  instant.  He 
threw  it  wide  open.  Mr.  Bender  and  his  friend 
— conquering  heroes  evidently — made  a  trium 
phal  entry  into  the  parlor  and  deposited  their 
burden  on  the  centre-table.  No  fears  now  that 
the  box  was  empty.  It  was  plain  enough  that 
there  had  been  a  rescue,  and  the  good  news,  beam 
ing  from  every  part  of  Mr.  Bender's  rosy  face, 
hardly-  needed  his  confirmatory  announcement : 
"There  is  the  stakes,  and  the  bets  if  any  are 
all  off." 

There  was  a  general  chorus  of  applause  as  the 
cover  was  removed  from  the  box,  and  the  assur 
ance  of  Centuria's  deliverance  from  the  base  uses 
to  which  she  had  been  destined  by  the  house  of 
Looney  was  made  doubly  sure  by  the  sight 
11 


158 


of  her  waxen  face  and  untarnished  Parisian  cos 
tume. 

"Tell  us  all  about  it,"  cried  Bessie  to  Mr. 
Bender,  who  was  her  second  hero  of  the  day,  and, 
thus  solicited,  that  gentleman,  with  modest  pride, 
described  his  outraged  feelings  when  he  heard, 
during  his  momentary  visit  to  the  Spindle  Shades, 
of  the  fate  which  was  inpending  over  Centuria, 
and  his  sudden  resolve  that  justice  should  be 
done  by  her  summary  recapture  and  restoration 
to  Mrs.  Limber,  and  how  he  had  successfully 
achieved  this  result  by  a  little  strategy  and  the 
outlay  of  the  ten  dollars  which  he  had  succeeded, 
in  paying  as  his  score,  in  spite  of  Mr.  Limber. 

"  This  crowns  the  day,"  said  Mr.  Limber,  brim 
ful  of  satisfaction.  "  Mr.  Bender  and  his  friend 
must  join  us  at  dinner  ;  you  are  all  my  guests,  I 
cannot  spare  one." 

Sam  was  not  entirely  at  ease;  he  turned  to 
Mr.  Calendar  with  an  anxious  look,  and  the  ques 
tion — 

"  May  they  not  attempt  to  replevy  her  ?  " 

"  Dear  Sam,"  said  Bessie,  "  what  do  you  mean, 
you  are  as  bad  as  that  awful  old  man  at  the  court 
house.  What  is  it  to  replevy  a  thing?  Is  it 
anything  dreadful  ?  " 

"  It  is  a  kind  of  grab-game,  which  you  play  at 


APOTHEOSIS    OF    CENTURIA.  159 

with  sheriffs  and  coroners,"  said  Sam.  "  If  Brid 
get  Looney  re  pie  vies  the  doll,  she  will  send  the 
sheriff  here  to  claim  it  as  her  property,  and  he  will 
take  it  off;  and  then  we  can  send  the  coroner  after 
the  sheriff  and  take  it  back  as  our  property ;  and 
then—" 

"  Sam  !  "  broke  in  Mrs.  Limber,  "  is  this 
going  to  end  in  a  coroner's  inquest  ?  Is  there  to 
be  a  post  mortem  over  this  poor  victim  of  the 
law  ?  Dear  me !  what  shall  we  do  with  these 
lawyers  ?  " 

"No,"  said  Mr/Calendar,  "this  is  the  end. 
Bridget  Looney  cannot  replevy  because  she  never 
had  any  legal  ownership.  The  doll  belongs  to 
the  original  owner." 

"  And  who  is  the  original  owner?  "  asked  Sam. 

"  I  should  say  Mrs.  Chancel,"  said  Mrs.  Lim 
ber.  "  She  is  the  owner,  it  was  her  doll." 

"  And  I,"  said  Mrs.  Chancel,  "  should  say  Mrs. 
Limber,  for  I  gave  the  doll  to  her." 

"  But  it  was  given  for  a  purpose  which  has 
failed,"  said  Sam. 

"  Not  at  all,"  said  the  rector;  "  the  church  has 
received  her  full  value." 

"  Oh,  dear  ! "  sighed  Bessie,  "  here  is  another 
dreadful  trouble.  It  is  going  to  be  impossible  to 
find  an  owner  for  Centuria." 


160  MRS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

"  Tt  is  a  pure  question  of  law,"  observed  Mr. 
Folio,  sententiously ;  "  why  not  leave  it  to  Mr. 
Calendar's  decision  ?  " 

"  There  is  no .  precedent  to  guide  me,"  said 
Mr.  Calendar,  "  unless  our  good  friend  the  rec 
tor  finds  one  in  the  judgment  of  Solomon.  We 
might  divide  Centuria,  and  give  one  half  to  Mrs. 
Limber  and  the  other  half  to  Mrs.  Chancel." 

"  Oh,  no,  no !  "  cried  both  ladies  at  once. 

"  It  would  be  very  easy  to  settle  this,"  said 
Mr.  Bender,  "  by  a  toss  up,  heads  or  tails,  but, 
says  you,  there's  the  Revived  Statues  again,  and 
where  are  we  ?  " 

"  Allow  me  to  make  a  suggestion,"  said  Mr. 
Calendar.  "  Centuria  has  been  rescued  from  the 
bar-room  by  the  ingenuity  and  courage  of  our 
friend  Mr.  Bender;  let  her  be  enshrined  in  the 
hospital." 

"By  all  means,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Limber;  "it 
is  her  just  due.  She  is  its  real  founder,  and  she 
shall  have  a  niche  in  the  main  entrance." 

"  It  will  be  a  charming  symbol,"  said  Mr. 
Chancel ;  "  she  will  represent  the  angel  of  chari 
ty  with  her  wings  clipped  by  the  sword  of  jus 
tice." 

"  Justice  Hazey,"  suggested  Sam,  in  a  stage 
whisper,  which  luckily  the  rector  did  not  hear 
and  which  Mrs.  Chancel  forgave. 


APOTHEOSIS    OF    CENTURIA.  161 

"  She  will  perpetuate  Mr.  Bender's  gallantry," 
said  Mr.  Limber. 

"And  Mr.  Folio's  legal  victory,"  said  Mr. 
Calendar. 

"  And  Mr.  Limber's  benevolence,"  said  Mrs. 
Chancel. 

"  And  my  folly,"  said  Mrs.  Limber. 

"  And  its  surprisingly  good  results,"  said 
Mrs.  Chancel.  "  If  folly  pays  church  debts  and 
builds  hospitals,  it  seems  like  a  very  good  sub 
stitute  for  wisdom." 

"  Not  folly,  after  all,"  said  Mrs.  Limber,  "  but 
folly  well  punished  and  well  forgiven." 

She  took  the  rector's  arm  and  led  the  way  tc 
dinner. 

Dick  Folio  and  Bessie  lingered  in  the  bay- 
window  of  the  parlor,  and  were  late  in  taking 
their  places  at  the  dinner-table.  What  passed 
between  them  during  that  brief  interview  does 
not  concern  our  story,  but  the  young  lawyer 
has  been  heard  to  declare  that  the  best  outcome 
of  Mrs.  Limber's  raffle  was  the  winning  for  him 
self  of  a  lawful  prize  in  the  lottery  of  life. 

"  One  thing  is  certain,"  said  David  Limber  at 
the  close  of  an  evening  spent  with  Mr.  Calendar 
over  the  plans  for  the  new  hospital,  which,  as  it 


162  MRS.  LIMBER'S  RAFFLE. 

grew  toward  completion,  grew  also  in  the  pro 
portions  of  its  founder's  liberality,  and  made  his 
Christmas-gift  a  lasting  memorial  of  his  name — 
"  one  thing  is  certain,  we  may  have  many  strange 
experiences,  there  may  be  strikes  and  floods, 
fires,  pestilence  and  famine,  tornadoes  and  earth 
quakes,  but  there  will  never  be  another  raffle  in 
Spindle,  at  least  among  decent  people." 

"Nor  would  there  be  anywhere  else,"  said 
Mr.  Calendar,  "  if  every  one  were  told  the  story 
of  Mrs.  Limber's  raffle,  and  would  lay  to  heart  its 
moral,  that  the  devil's  edge-tools  are  sure  to  cut, 
no  matter  how  dexterously  handled  by  saint  or 


NOTE. 

PAGE  67.  The  aiding  of  public  objects  by  means  of 
State  lotteries  has  been,  in  this  country,  an  imitation  of 
the  methods  of  Continental  Europe  and  of  Great  Britain. 
Up  to  the  year  1826,  lotteries  for  public  improvements 
and  for  benevolent  purposes  were  authorized  in  England, 
and  both  the  Colonial  and  State  legislatures  in  America 
followed  the  example  of  the  mother  country. 

To  the  institutions  mentioned  by  Mr.  Calendar  as 
having  been  aided  by  public  lotteries  must  be  added 
Princeton  College,  which,  strangely  enough,  appears  to 
have  had  such  help  from  a  lottery  authorized  by  the  State 
of  Connecticut  in  1753.  I  have  in  my  possession  a  ticket 
of  this  lottery,  printed  in  the  style  of  the  pre-Revolution- 
ary  period.  It  reads  as  follows : 

"  Connecticut  LOTTERY. 
For  the  Benefit  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey. 

1753  •      Numb.  2495. 

Ticket  entitles  the  Possessor  to  such  Prize  as  may 
be  drawn  against  its  Number,  (if  demanded  within 
six  Months  after  the  Drawing  is  finished)  subject  to  a 
Deduction  of  15  per  Cent. 

E  John  Lloyd." 


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nsr. 
f 

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TTINTS  ABOUT  MEN'S  DXESS:  Right  Principles 
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i8mo.  Parchment-paper,  30  cents. 

A  useful  manual,  especially  for  young  men  desirous  of  dressing  eco 
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'THE   GARDEN'S  STORY;   or,  Pleasures  and  Trials 
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and  the  'secret  of  the  year'  conies  in  to  mid  October,  Mr.  Ellwanger  pro 
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11  One  of  the  most  charming  books  of  the  season.  ...  It  is  in  no  sense 
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about  flowers  and  plants." — Christian  Union. 

"A  dainty,  learned,  charming,  and  delightful  book." — New  York  Sun. 


T 


'HE  STORY  OF  MY  HOUSE.  With  an  Etched 
Frontispiece  by  Sidney  L.  Smith,  and  numerous  Head 
and  Tail  Pieces  by  W.  C.  Greenough.  i6mo.  Cloth, 
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"An  essay  on  the  building  of  a  house,  with  all  its  kaleidoscopic  possi 
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always  interesting;  and  the  author  is  not  niggardly  in  the  good  points  he 
means  to  secure.  .  .  .  The  book  aims  only  to  be  agreeable;  its  literary 
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for  this  daintily  printed  volume  to  do  better." — Art  Amateur. 

TN   GOLD   AND    SILVER.     With  Illustrations  by  W. 
•*         Hamilton  Gibson,  A.  B.  Wenzell,  and  W.  C.  Greenough. 
i6mo.      Cloth,  $2.00.      Also,  limited  Edition  de  luxe,  on 
Japanese  vellum,  $5.00. 

CONTENTS  :  The  Golden  Rug  of  Kermanshah ;  Warders  of  the  Woods; 
A  Shadow  upon  the  Pool;  The  Silver  Fox  of  Hunt's  Hollow. 

"  After  spending  a  half-hour  with  'In  Gold  and  Silver,'  one  recalls  the 
old  saying,  'Precious  things  come  in  small  parcels.'" — Christian  Intelli 
gencer. 

"  One  of  the  handsomest  gift-books  of  the  yzzx."— Philadelphia  Inquirer. 

"  The  whole  book  is  eminently  interesting,  and  emphatically  deserving 
of  the  very  handsome  and  artistic  setting  it  has  received." — New  York 
Tribune. 

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COMPLETE      WORKS.     "  Parch- 
ment  Edition."  In  twelve  volumes.     i6mo,  bound  in  parch 
ment,  gilt  top,  $15.00  ;   half  calf,  $30.00  ;    full  calf,  $40.00. 
The  text  is  mainly  that  of  Delias,  following  closely  the  folio  edition 
of  1623,  the  chief  difference  consisting  in  a  more  sparing  use  of  punctua 
tion  than  that  employed  by  the  well-known  German  editor. 

"There  is  perhaps  no  edition  in  which  the  works  of  Shakspere  can  be 
read  in  such  luxury  of  type  and  quiet  distinction  of  form  as  this." — 
Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

^HAKSPERES   COMPLETE    WORKS.    "Warwick 
O      Edition."     In  twelve  volumes.     i6mo,  bound  in  cloth  or 

half  cloth,  $9.00  per  set,  either  style. 

T  This  edition  is  from  the  same  type  as  the  above,  but  printed  on  thinner 
paper,  making  handier  and  more  flexible  volumes,  at  a  lower  price,  while 
retaining  the  peculiar  elegance  of  that  edition. 

/IN  INDEX  TO  THE  WORKS  OF  SHAKSPERE. 
jf~L  Giving  references,  by  topics,  to  notable  passages  and  sig 
nificant  expressions  ;  brief  histories  of  the  plays  ;  geograph 
ical  names  and  historical  incidents  ;  mention  of  all  characters,  and 
sketches  of  important  ones  ;  together  with  explanations  of  allu 
sions  and  obscure  and  obsolete  words  and  phrases.  By  EVAN- 
GELINE  M.  O'CONNOR.  Crown  8vo.  Half  leather,  $2.00. 

There  is  a  multitude  of  books  on  Shakspere's  works,  but  the  com 
bination  of  information  here  presented  is  new,  and  hence  it  is  believed  it 
will  prove  of  great  value  to  all  students  and  readers  of  Shakspere. 

TjNGLISH  COMIC  DRAMA  TISTS.  Selections  from 
/If  Fourteen  of  the  Leading  Dramatists,  from  Shakspere  to 
Sheridan.  Edited  by  OSWALD  CRAWFORD.  i8mo.  Parch 
ment  antique,  gilt  top,  $1.25. 

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and  Fletcher,  Vanbrugh,  Colley  Gibber,  Congreve,  Addison,  Farquhar, 
Gay,  Goldsmith,  Gumberland,  and  Sheridan." — N.  Y.  Journal oj  Com 
merce. 

"  The  selections  have  been  excellently  made,  and  the  collection  is  one 
of  rare  merit.  The  introduction  by  Mr.  Crawfurd  is  an  intelligent  and 
careful  consideration  of  the  qualities  and  the  history  of  the  comic  drama  of 
England,  and  is  a  valuable  addition  to  dramatic  literature.  The  brief  ex 
planatory  critique  preceding  each  play  adds  much  to  tne  interest  of  the 
volume." — Boston  Post. 

COMEDIES  FOR   AMATEUR  ACTING.      Edited, 
with  a   Prefatory    Note    on    Private    Theatricals,    by    J. 
BRANDER  MATTHEWS.     i8mo.     Paper,  30  cents. 
The  half-dozen  one-act  plays  in  this  little  book  have  been  prepared 
especially  for  amateurs. 

New  York :  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  72  Fifth  Avenue. 


Butler,  W.A 
_  Mrs  . 


Apr. 4 '17 


,IUL  30  1921 


DEC  4 

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